Part 9 - All Things Must Die

Chapter 152 - Destroy

Three days of research, involving binge watching a TV show over and over and not much else, ended in one mission: to strike a crippling blow to the TVA. Once more, Gwen was irritated about being side-lined, but she was starting to come round to the idea of not having to constantly fight or run for the first time in years. Miles was the best choice for this mission, but going in alone would be suicide against a group with the ability to destroy a reality. Charlotte volunteered as well, but likely only for the chance to kill or be killed knowing her. The next choice was Teresa for her skillset and unique powers. The last spot was taken by someone from dimension 2095: someone who went by the name of Ant Man. During the time away, 2095 had opened diplomatic relations with what remained of the coalition. The team now stood in an empty street outside a skyscraper in 9559 with a hefty supply of explosives. With a long press on the watches, they were catapulted away from home.

Miles stared out in awe. He had never seen a place this big, nor even dreamed of it. Then again, trying to be Spiderman here would be hell with so much ground to cover; New York was bad enough.

"Stop daydreaming and let's move before we're noticed." Teresa snapped.

"Wow, she's bossy." Remarked Ant Man.

"You'll get used to it." Miles replied.

The team wandered around for what felt like hours trying to find something critical to destroy. Miles had hoped they'd just blow out a power source or something and not hurt too many of the general population of this place, but Teresa had other plans as they reached the bottom of a staircase. She swung her pack off and started planting charges.

"What are you doing?" Miles asked.

"No clear target, so we're doing the next best thing: knocking down a tower."

"There's civilians here."

"And when did civilians stop you?"

"When didn't they?"

"When you controlled the Legion. That Miles understood the mission and would have carried it out without question.

"Well I'm not him."

"Clearly. Now suck it up and let's move. We'll put charges in some more buildings and by some miracle we'll get something important."

"What about those statues?" Charlotte suggested.

"A bit of symbolic demolition never hurt."

"Yeah it did." Miles replied.

Teresa sighed and came up right in his face.

"You're going to quit protesting about how war's are fought, or I'll make you the next unfortunate casualty. Is that understood?"

"I'm not a soldier. I don't take orders."

"Then act like one and take them, or take a bullet."

The commander set off towards a group of three statues.

For half-an-hour, the team snuck around trying to find decent places to put the explosives. Miles had given up protesting deciding Teresa would never come round. Clearly killing was all she knew, even though the Teresa he remembered wouldn't have been quite this cold. As they came round to planting the last few charges, Miles' spidey sense lit up like a firework's display. He whirled round and stared down the corridor.

"Someone's coming."

Teresa pulled her pistol, Charlotte tensed up and Ant Man turned absolutely tiny. A squad of people wearing heavy all-black armour appeared wielding spiked batons with lights on the end.

"You're under arrest."

"Try it." Teresa snapped, raising her pistol.

The squad advanced with their batons held ready. Suddenly, one of them was sent hurtling backwards as Ant Man kicked them in the face. Teresa fired a single shot through the chest of another and Charlotte took a run up, sliding under the swing of a baton and kicking the soldier's feet out before webbing them down and kicking them in the side of the head. Miles was about to take care of the last one when another bullet took care of them. The one Ant Man had kicked was back up now; Miles webbed them down.

"If that's all these guys have, we're fine." Charlotte commented.

"Something tells me this is nothing." Replied Teresa as she pocketed her pistol.

"Nothing or everything, we'll be ready."

"Really? You don't look ready." Said someone from down the corridor.

The team got ready again, suddenly finding themselves staring down the barrels of numerous assault rifles. Miles glanced behind them to see they were blocked in. A woman pushed through the group in front and looked her catch over.

"Prune the girl in silver. Imprison the other two. Find the last one and prune him too."

She disappeared back behind the ranks again. One of those behind went to grab Teresa, but suddenly received a kick in the face from Ant Man. The commander whirled round and fired a shot straight through their face. A split second later, ten more struck her. Her legs folded from under her and she hit the floor, dead. Miles and Charlotte knew there was no use to fighting. The former thought about using his invisibility, but that would leave Charlotte to fend for herself and that would be something she'd never forgive him for. Ant Man was down by this point, having grown to normal size only to be hit by the glowing light of a baton and pruned. Miles and Charlotte held their hands up to show they surrendered. High-tech collars were put around their necks and their masks were removed before they were shoved at gunpoint down the corridor until they came to prison cells. They were given a small cube each with a bench and nothing else. Red beams of energy covered the entrances, locking them in. Miles sat on the bench; it was extremely uncomfortable, but he was technically a criminal in the TVA's eyes so he figured they wouldn't care if he threatened to write a letter of complaint.

As the hours ticked by, Miles thought more and more about Gwen. Would she be OK if he was killed today? Yes, she would be. Heartbroken, yes, but she was one of the strongest and bravest people he knew. She'd find a way to pull through, no matter what life threw her way. He wondered about the child she was carrying. Would he ever meet them when they were alive, or would he meet them in Bastria? He hoped for the former, but the latter was more likely. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a cough. He looked up to see the woman from before.

"Both of you will answer all my questions or you will be pruned."

"Whatever." Charlotte replied.

"I'll talk." Said Miles.

"Good. What were you doing placing explosives?"

"What were you doing trying to prune our reality?" Asked Charlotte.

"I am asking the questions. You will answer them."

"Or what? You'll kill me? No thanks to you I've been torn away from my happy life and now I've lost my brother. I've got nothing left to lose."

"You will be pruned."

"You'll throw prunes at me? I'm terrified."

Miles piped up at this point:

"She asked a good question. Charlotte, that is, not you TVA lady."

"I have no idea which reality you are from."

"We're from a different narrative. Someone said something about an anonymous tip-off."

"That reality. We were told you were a threat to the Sacred Timeline, and your attempt to destroy the TVA has proven that."

"Who tipped you off?" Pressed Charlotte.

"That is not your concern. Your only concern is my questions."

"Fire away." Miles replied, disappointed not to accomplish something useful from this mission.

"Excuse me while I retrieve my questions for people from your reality."

After some tapping on a device, the woman started talking again:

"What is your reason for attempting to destroy the Sacred Timeline."

"We don't have one. We were minding our own business until you guys showed up. Now I've got a wife back home who's carrying a kid I might never meet. What even is the Sacred Timeline?"

"I'm sure Miss Minutes will explain shortly. My next question: who protects your reality?"

"Dei Volente, Maximilian Morales-Stacy. He's got a lot of names, but you should probably know I'm his sister and he's his dad." Charlotte snapped.

"Did you not say your brother is dead?"

"I said I lost him. He'll be back, and for every drop of our blood you spill, he'll spill a million more."

"What powers does he have?"

"All of them. He's a High Elder God; the fifth most powerful being in our narrative. He sees everything, he can do anything. He'll destroy you and everything you love."

"He won't get close enough."

"A lot of people have said that and will say that. All of them were wrong."

Charlotte was staring through the bars of energy with a burning hatred. The woman put the device away.

"We will continue this investigation another time."

She turned and walked away leaving the spiders alone. Miles leaned his head back against the wall of the cell. That was when Charlotte asked a question he didn't expect:

"Are you OK?"

"No. An entire day went by when I was a narrative up, but it was only an hour for me. Gwen might be fifty by the time we get out of here."

"We'll work this out."

"You got a plan?"

"Survive until Max can break us out."

"That could take ages."

"You got something better?"

Miles stood up, charged a venom strike and punched the wall of red energy. He yelped as it started to incinerate his hand. He got away with only severe burns on his skin, but he wasn't going to try again.

"Don't touch them." Said Charlotte.

"You think?"

A few miserable minutes went by. The pain faded away quite quickly and the damage was already healing. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an orange analogue clock appeared wearing a face.

"Hey guys!" It exclaimed in an extremely annoying female voice.

"What the hell are you?" Charlotte snapped.

"My name is Miss Minutes, and I'm here to tell you all about the TVA!"

"Great. Maybe you could get me an ice pack." Miles grumbled.

"I'll tell the medical team to come and check you out. In the meantime, let me tell you about the Scared Time…"

Miss Minutes was cut off by an alarm and the sound of gunshots, explosions and tearing metal merged with the noise of fire.

"Sorry guys. I've got to go."

The clock disappeared into thin air.

"Is your hand OK?" Charlotte asked.

"Nothing's OK. The question is what's all that noise?"

"Sounds like someone pissed off a dragon."

"You don't think Max is actually back, do you?"

"Maybe. His dragons said they'd be back when battle came."

"Honestly, I don't care if it's Osama Bin Laden with a flamethrower so long as they get us out of here."

"He's more likely to have an airplane. But maybe that noise is the afterburners?"

The pair didn't have to wait long to find out what was going on. The door, and a large chunk of the wall, exploded. Through it thundered an enraged looking dragon. From its metal armour, the spiders knew it was the one Max usually rode on. Odahviing tore the cell walls down, turning his head to fire a jet of flames at a squad of soldiers who were trying to kill him with guns. The bullets just ricocheted.

"Drem yol lok. Unslaad krosis; [Greetings. Innumerable pardons;] it has taken some time to find you so far from home. But Dei Volente watches over you."

"Max is back?"

"Hm? Ni tiid. Dei Volente mahlaan. [Not now. Dei Volente has fallen.] He will not return until he has regained enough of his strength to challenge those who seek to dethrone him. Come, there is little time to ask questions now. These mortals will not rest for long."

Odahviing lowered his head, allowing the pair to climb on, just as another squad of TVA soldiers appeared. Flames engulfed them and the dragon set off, lumbering through the hallways following the trail of destruction back out to freedom. In the open air, Odahviing spread his wings and soared into the air, letting out a roar which resulted in him, Miles and Charlotte being sucked into a portal.

Gwen was on the verge of giving up hope that Miles would come back. He should have been away for a day at most, but here she was sitting all alone nearly two weeks later. The penthouse felt very empty without him, and so did her heart. Suddenly, she heard something outside. She didn't bother looking around. On the other hand, Miles' uncle had just appeared from the room he was staying in until he could be stabilised and sort something out for himself.

"Hey Gwen. You might want to look at that."

She sighed, turning round to look at the hole in reality that had appeared. It disappeared again, leaving behind a dragon and two riders. The riders leapt off onto the balcony. Gwen saw who they were and ran to the door. She threw herself on Miles, almost knocking him over. Charlotte sighed and turned to Odahviing as her parents kissed.

"So, mister dragon, any interesting chat?"

"A dovah has no time for tinvok [conversation]."

"Sounds great. Alright, can you two get your tongues out each other's mouths so we can talk about what went down in the last few hours?"

Miles pulled away.

"We weren't using tongues."

"Whatever. Teresa's dead, so's that ant guy, and the TVA is now really pissed at us. Any ideas?"

"Speak to Edward." Said Gwen.

"I will, but first I need a drink and something to eat."

Charlotte walked into the penthouse.

"Hey Uncle Aaron. How's glitching going for you?"

"It hurts a lot."

"I can imagine. Or not really; I've never glitched before. Hey, how long's it been?"

"Two weeks."

"Wow."

Miles overheard his uncle say that. He looked Gwen straight in the eyes.

"It's been two weeks? I thought you were just happy to see me alive."

"It's both."

He looked down at the baby bump which had grown a little since he'd left.

"How's things going?"

"OK. At least they'll have a dad now."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- Loki
- Skyrim