Part 9 - All Things Must Die

Chapter 151 - Hunt

With the Scarlet King condemned to oblivion once again and nobody kidnapped by Nazis, the alliance was looking a little pointless to most. Charlotte was having none of it, and neither was Teresa. The former was intent on carrying out her brother's wishes; the latter had a nearly perfect record of completing every mission she was set and this one wasn't finished. The pair stood in front of the other alliance leaders.

"If we don't track down the TVA, they might come back and cause more damage." Charlotte argued after the High Aether of the Quintari had made a point against it.

"How do you propose we would track down such an organisation?" He pressed.

"We ask around. The Pritari could know something." Teresa answered, crossing her arms.

"Death might, too. He used to be a HEG." Charlotte added.

"A what?" Edward asked.

"A High Elder God. Didn't Max remind you about what he is?"

"He did. I hadn't figured out the acronym."

"We'll split up. Gwen, Charlotte: you'll speak to Death. Me, Edward and the High Aether will speak to the Pritari." Teresa ordered.

"Sounds like a plan." The admiral agreed.

"Can't I go with you guys?" Asked Charlotte.

"You need to protect your little brother or sister that your mother's carrying. Quite frankly, Gwen, you shouldn't even be fighting at this point. Take some maternity leave, for goodness sake."

Gwen shook her head.

"If I stop fighting for a while, I'll feel bad about everything bad that happens in that time."

"Whatever you say."

Getting to Bastria was as simple as catching a ride on a Quintari ship. Gwen wasn't such a fan of them; they felt too boxy. Sol Galactic Command ships looked nice and sleek. Then again, the Quintari weren't human so their thoughts on what looked nice and what didn't would naturally differ. The ship dispatched a shuttle with the two spiders on board since they had advised against teleportation whilst pregnant. Charlotte hadn't said a word the whole time; just stared at her mother with a slightly less malicious look than usual. For the sake of keeping her neck, Gwen decided not to start any talk. Besides, she was worried about Miles despite the reassurances of the hospital staff.

Death was waiting at the landing zone, as was Charlotte's friend Rachel. Charlotte's mood lightened massively when she saw her.

"Rachel!"

They hugged happily.

"How have things been in the land of the living?" Rachel asked.

"Bad. We're hunting a group called the TVA."

"What does that stand for?"

"No idea. Max did something by accident and made a mess which he dragged me into."

"At least you got a change of company."

Charlotte grimaced.

"Not the best company." She said, nodding at Gwen who was watching from the shuttle's ramp.

"Maybe you shouldn't hold a grudge? She's the only mother you've got, after all. And she's kind of a different one from the original."

Charlotte sighed.

"I'll think about it."

"That's a start. Things must be really bad that you've stopped being so stubborn."

"Max is basically dead. He'll be back soon, but we're on our own for now."

"He trusts people can manage without him, I guess."

Death drifted a little closer.

"Dei Volente will return when all seems hopeless. For now he must rest and rebuild himself." Said his voice on the wind.

"He's always been one to make an entrance at the last minute. But let's talk about what I'm here for since you've probably got stuff to do. Do you know anything about the TVA?"

"I know enough to say they are a group of significant power. I have had meetings with their agents before now, as has Dei Volente."

"Where do they come from? We have to wipe them out."

"They come from a place beyond the reaches of this omniverse."

"Up a narrative, then?"

"In so many words, indeed. I must warn an open conflict with them will be bloody."

"We have blood to spare."

"A way must be found to save it. Each life is precious in its own way."

"Leave the killing to us. You just hang around and welcome the guys who don't make it."

Death departed without another word, although the world seemed to have grown colder. Charlotte didn't mind, but she noticed Gwen was shivering a little. She turned back to Rachel.

"We should probably go. Who knows? Maybe a lucky bullet will bring me back here."

"I'd say I look forward to seeing you again, but that's slightly morbid."

With a last hug, the spiders boarded the shuttle again.

The Pritari had little else to share other than that 'TVA' stood for 'Time Variance Authority'. It was a week later and Edward had made it a little side-mission to figure out what they did, and that name helped significantly. His current theory was that they kept a single timeline in check and destroyed those that strayed from it. What purpose this served, he didn't know, but he was sure it would be revealed soon enough. There was also the matter of the anonymous tip-off, but nothing could be done about that until it was no longer anonymous. What was clear was the person had some form of grudge against the admiral's reality. He entered the briefing room and noticed the High Aether was replaced by a Quintari with a tablet.

"Where's the HA?"

"His Majesty has asked me to deliver this message to you." The Quintari replied.

Edward took the tablet and read the message out loud for the benefit of Miles, Teresa and Charlotte:

"'It would appear the mission of this coalition is no longer to the benefit of the greater good, and as such the Quintari Temporal Alliance has withdrawn from it. I wish you all the best in your endeavours, and hope that you will come to understand this decision.'"

Edward sighed and handed the device back to the messenger.

"It looks like your race has backed out of yet another war. Send the High Aether my regards."

With that, the lone Quintari disappeared in a beam of energy. Teresa, Charlotte and Miles stared at the admiral expectantly. The last had mostly recovered, and both Teresa and Edward agreed it was for the best if Gwen stayed on the side-lines of things from now on while she was pregnant. The admiral sat down and glanced at the other three one by one before starting the briefing he had prepared.

"Our mission falls under a category not usually undertaken by SGC called 'Hunt and Destroy'. We need to hunt the TVA down and wipe them out, which I'm sure you know already. If you don't, I advise you to move out from a house under a rock. Anyway, my point about this being an irregular mission for SGC is it took a hell of a lot of paperwork to persuade the other admirals, so let's make it count so my wrist doesn't want me to slit it again."

"What's the plan? All we got is another narrative, and we only have a handful of narrative jumping devices." Asked Teresa.

"The plan is to make contact with Liam and Michael, if any of you remember them. They have a few more which aren't as advanced as the ones Max gave us, but every one of them counts so our forces aren't bottlenecked if we end up in an open war with the TVA. Sol R&D is working on replicating the technology and upping the scale, but it's taking time. In the meantime, we need the ones Liam and Michael have. Miles, Teresa: you will travel up a narrative and find. Explain the situation, answer their questions, then report to dimension 9559 hopefully with their entire stock. Any questions? None? I'll take that as a good sign. Charlotte: the Pritari said they might have more information on the TVA hidden somewhere in their historical records. You're to report to them and work to figure it out. Try and keep your bad attitude towards everything that moves somewhat restrained."

"Bad attitude? If you think I've got a bad attitude, you clearly forgot my brother blowing up a super volcano before he warmed up again and reset everything."

"That's exactly what I mean, and thank you for reminding me about that. You've given me an idea I really don't like. Any questions?"

"What will you do?" Charlotte asked.

"I'll run the interdimensional space fleet I'm in charge of. Anything else?"

After some silence, Edward nodded and switched off his futuristic iPad.

"Good luck on your missions."

Miles and Teresa stuck around to figure out the details.

"I've got our narrative watches. I'll come to your penthouse in one hour. Make sure you're ready and that Gwen is tied down so she doesn't try to tag along." Said the latter.

"Cool. See you."

"Are you sure you can't convince them to let me come with you?" Gwen pleaded with Miles.

She hated having to sit around.

"No. I have to agree with them, especially after what happened with the Nazis."

She let her shoulders slump.

"I really thought you'd back me up with this one."

He took her hand and kissed her lips.

"I would, but you're carrying our kid and I'm scared enough about that without having to worry about whether it'll ever be born."

Suddenly, the elevator pinged and Teresa walked in. Miles stood up straight and picked up his mask. The commander noticed he had his dimension jumping watch on.

"You can take that off. It won't be any use. These do everything that does as well as jump narratives."

Miles put it down and noticed Teresa was carrying an extremely heavy-duty briefcase.

"I'm guessing that's not just the paperwork."

"No, it's the watches. I come prepared, just as I expect the soldiers I work with to be."

She brushed some shards of glass off a step and put the case down.

"Gwen, since you insist on trying to help, you can clean this place up. It's been a week." She commented.

"I'm working on it. Maybe you could help out sometime."

"I'm a soldier, not a cleaner."

"And I'm a spider person who's husband was stabbed."

"Just work it out since you've got nothing else to do."

Gwen and Miles exchanged looks before the latter made his way over to Teresa who opened the case. She took out a chunky watch and handed it to him.

"Be careful with that. It's channelling enough of your son's power to turn New York into the map for the next game in the Fallout franchise."

"No pressure."

He put it on carefully, paranoid about it blowing up in his face. When he'd done up the clasp, he looked back at Teresa who was sporting her armour, a high calibre pistol and a fed up expression. She held up her wrist.

"The interface is simple: the three buttons on the right are the main ones we'll need. The top tells it you're going a narrative up; the bottom tells it down. The middle button switches between narrative and dimension jumping. The wheel on the left side is used to select a narrative number below or a dimension in dimension mode. The box on the screen should read 'D-0000'. Does it?"

"Yes."

"Good, now switch it into narrative mode and it should read 'N-ERRO'."

"Yep."

"That's an error because trying to jump to a narrative you're already in will result in the unplanned disassembly of you and your nearby loved ones. To fix it, set it to jump up a narrative."

Miles pressed the top right button.

"It says 'NUNA'. Sounds like a planet from Star Wars or something."

"It stands for 'Narrative, Up, Not Applicable'. You can only go to one narrative when travelling up. Are you ready to leave?"

Miles put his mask on, said goodbye to Gwen then nodded.

"Good. To jump, you'll hold your finger down on the screen for three seconds. On hold, you'll do that and I'll count down to jump. It won't be a pleasant feeling. Ready?"

"Yeah. I'm nervous, now."

"Suck it up. Hold, two, one."

Miles suddenly felt as if he no longer existed as everything went black, then he felt like he was being crushed between two planets.

As things came back into focus, Miles found himself in the middle of a residential street. Teresa was standing next to him. He felt more than a little nauseous, but he had a feeling the commander likely wouldn't care.

"We're exactly where we need to be which makes me think we're involved in some plot convenience."

"What?"

"It's worrying."

"How?"

"Because plot convenience only happens where there's a plot, and if there's a plot there's a story being written somewhere. That means you, me and everyone significant to it are slaves to it. Every move you make is already written; you don't have free will."

"I don't like that. No, you shouldn't. Wait, why'd I say that?"

"Someone forgot to skip a line and add a new quotation mark for me saying it and left it in for fun. This is a game. Let's move before the Kool-Aid Man reaches the fourth wall."

She started walking and Miles followed.

"I don't like this." He muttered.

"Good. You're about to meet your maker, or one of the makers of one of you."

The spider and commander stopped in front of a door to a flat. Miles pressed the doorbell and a few seconds later the door opened to reveal a man in his late twenties. The man frowned for a second then his face lit up.

"Hey guys. Come in."

Miles glanced at Teresa who entered and he decided to follow suit. The door was closed and locked. The man showed them into a sitting room where there was another man working on something on his computer. He looked up when they entered.

"Right on time…I think."

"You were expecting us?" Teresa questioned.

"Sort of. I'm sure somebody wrote it down, so it happened. How much do you two remember about me and Michael?"

Miles took his mask off, suddenly remembering who these two were.

"I remember Michael was a special agent or something."

"Remember the car chase Max ended?" Michael, the man who had let them in, asked from the door into the room.

"Vaguely. I remember knocking an attack helicopter out."

"Good. Your memory isn't completely dead."

"Can we get down to business?" Asked Teresa.

"'Business. Business, business, business.'" Michael joked in a voice like a three year old.

"OK Uni-Kitty." Liam replied, putting his laptop to the side.

Miles sat down on the couch opposite him and Teresa joined him; Michael settled next to Liam.

"What brings you up to our corner of the narrative-verse?" Asked the latter.

"We need your narrative watches." Teresa replied bluntly.

"Why?" Asked Michael.

"For a war with the Time Variance Authority. A squad of theirs came to our reality and nearly destroyed it, only failing because Max stopped them before he made a mess and brought back the Scarlet King."

"Ooh. He would not have liked that."

"He was freaking out when he told me and Gwen." Miles replied.

Michael looked at something above the spider's head.

"Is he still wearing that suit?"

Miles looked up and saw a drawing of Max crouched in his suit with a hand outstretched as if to catch something.

"Yeah he does. When he's alive, anyway."

"Max is dead?"

Michael looked horrified.

"No, he's sleeping." Liam replied.

"How do you know that?" Teresa asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Because new chapters are appearing on my fanfiction account and I'm not writing them. I haven't written one since the end of part five and the Scarlet King's…original death. I've been reading the new ones, though. Some of them are trash. That one about Max testing you, Miles, after you and Gwen went on a break…it just makes no sense."

"Max found one of the other High Elder Gods was messing with stuff." Miles replied.

"Classic way to excuse bad writing: the big bad God did it."

"The entire story's a mess. Nobody even understands it. There's too much going on." Said Michael.

"I'll agree with that."

"Who's been writing these new chapters?" Asked Teresa.

"That's the question, isn't it. I've changed my password about ten times and they still keep appearing. I've tried to track the IP, but it just doesn't exist."

"Which part are we on?" Asked Miles.

"Nine. And no the rest of it isn't here. Chapter one-hundred and fifty-one just uploaded and that's what we're in now."

Teresa drummed her fingers on her knee then came to a conclusion.

"It's Null. He created us, and has absolute power over everything we do."

"Didn't Max blow up a volcano in his narrative? I thought he'd be dead." Replied Miles.

"One volcano isn't going to do much, not even Yellowstone. There'd be a lot of poverty and famine after it, but directly it wouldn't kill that many. It's possible Null is still alive."

"So we have to stop him writing."

"Something tells me he'll know you're coming." Said Michael.

"Let's do things one at a time. We'll destroy the TVA, then figure out Null." Said Liam.

"'We'?" Teresa questioned.

"You think I'm gonna sit around letting the TVA walk over you guys? I bet I know just about all there is to know about them. We can even watch the entirety of the Loki TV show, if you want. Or you could download it and take it home."

"We'll download it, and we'll need your narrative watches."

"We only have a few, but I'll grab them." Replied Michael, getting on his feet again and disappearing to go find them.

Silence fell on the room which started making Miles a little uncomfortable after a while, so he decided to break it.

"So Liam…what you up to nowadays without a glowing ball thing stuck inside you?"

"Running the world's biggest tech company."

"And you're living in a flat still? I thought you'd have a private island or something."

"I wish. I've not got the time for all the paperwork. How's spider life treating you?"

"Gwen's pregnant and we're about to start a war so…about as good as can be expected."

"Feeling scared about the kid?"

"More than a little."

"You'll do fine. You'd be a great father."

"Not really. Have you met Max and Charlotte? Or just Charlotte, anyway. You've met Max."

"Very cold personality when I met him. But he got rid of that 3812 so I'm not complaining."

"Charlotte's just as bad as cold Max, but permanently."

"She'll come round."

Michael returned with a briefcase nearly identical to the one Teresa had had.

"Four of them. I don't think it'll help much, and they need discs which are in here with them."

Teresa stood up and took it.

"Thank you. Every one of them helps. Miles, do you have your phone?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Get a copy of this TV show from Liam."

Five minutes later, Miles and Teresa were standing out in the street having said goodbye to Michael and Liam. Teresa explained how to use the watches to get home. When it was set, Miles took a deep breath remembering the feeling of being crushed.

"Ready?"

"Yep."

"Hold, two, one."

Once more, they were catapulted into nothingness, then on between the two non-existent planets, and finally back into their home narrative.

Miles groaned.

"I think I nearly broke my neck."

"If you'd broken your neck, you wouldn't be saying that. Pass your watch back and I'll deliver all of these to 9559, then you can keep Gwen happy for a while before we go to war."

Miles took the watch off and flicked his hand around a little to get rid of the feeling like it was as light as a feather without the weight.

"Have fun."

Teresa disappeared in a burst of colour. Miles turned to Gwen and grinned. She had a frown on.

"That took a while."

"It was literally an hour at most."

"Err…no. It's been two days."

He became aware there wasn't a howling wind in the penthouse anymore and he looked around to see most of the windows had been replaced or were boarded up.

"I guess time works differently between narratives, but I'm here now."

He kissed her, happy to be back and to get some alone time together.

Crossovers in this Chapter

None, I don't think.