Part 9 - All Things Must Die

Chapter 160 - All Things Have Died

"Miles. Miles!"

He opened his eyes, but everything seemed dark. There was a horrible smell on the air too. The only comforting and familiar thing was the face looking down at him. Gwen looked scared, but when she saw he was awake she looked happy again.

"Oh thank god. I thought you were gone."

Miles groaned and twisted his neck to look at his surroundings. He was in a space closed off from the rest of the world by temporary curtains.

"Where am I?"

"A make-shift hospital."

"Which narrative?"

"Null's."

He wanted to panic, but so much of his body hurt that even the thought of moving was uncomfortable. Gwen picked up on his distress.

"It's OK. Null told people if they harmed anyone from our narrative except Max, they'd have him to answer to."

"Null's alive?"

"Yeah. He woke up a few days ago."

"How long have I been out?"

"A couple of weeks at most."

"That's like…a year in our narrative."

"Yeah."

Miles looked down at the bump to see it was gone.

"Wait…the baby…"

"Was born…I'm not sure how long ago now cos of time differences."

He grinned.

"With any luck, she won't turn out like Charlotte."

"I hope not, but she was a good person at heart. Just a bit of a psycho sometimes."

They went silent for a short moment until there was a knock on the curtain frame.

"Who is it?" Asked Gwen.

"Max."

"Uh oh." Miles whispered.

The curtain opened.

"You haven't killed Null, have you?" He asked the God.

"No. And it's time to go home." Max replied bluntly.

"Miles needs more time." Gwen protested.

"He can have plenty of time back home with the people that actually made most of the tech in this place."

There were another knock on the frame. The trio looked to see Null in his wheelchair.

"Hi." He said awkwardly.

"What do you want?" Max snapped.

"A moment with your dad."

"So you can kill him? No way."

"Max! Out!" Miles snapped.

The God raised his eyebrows but complied. Gwen kissed her husband's forehead and left too. Null wheeled himself to Miles' side.

"A lot of people are kinda pissed at me about the skyscraper. It was called Canary Wharf and was a London landmark."

"Oops."

"Big oops. But now you're a bit less on the brink of death, I wanted to say sorry. You said you didn't want to kill me, but I thought you were so caught up worshiping Max you'd do it anyway. I wasn't thinking straight and now look at you."

"I'll heal."

"You basically have. Why you remained unconscious for so long is anyone's guess, but that's a question for the author of both our narratives."

"Yeah. I'll admit I was close to doing what Max wanted me to do, but I couldn't leave you in the fire."

"Max has become too cold and dangerous. It might have been my fault for resurrecting Khahrahk, though."

"And mine for asking about drug jokes. Do you want to tell me?"

Null considered it for a moment then shook his head.

"It's his place to decide when you're ready, not mine. But I'm afraid this is far from over. When I said 'Gwen will be OK', I changed something that had already happened to her. She's a small enough detail in your reality that I can make that change. What I can't change is what's already been done when I thought all of you were Max's pawns. I've stopped it spreading any further but…I'm sorry."

"What did you do, Null?"

"As you were leaving your narrative for this last battle, you saw a red cloud. That red cloud is…I can't talk about this to your face. What I've done is terrible. You'll see soon. And if you decide to come back and kill me, at least I won't have to live in a wheelchair for however much is left of my life."

"I won't. People make bad choices every day. It's being able to admit it was bad that counts."

"Wise words, but I fear you won't stick to that moto when you see what's happened. Goodbye, Miles, and good luck."

He turned his wheelchair and rolled away. Gwen and Max reappeared. Miles sat up, gritting his teeth as he swung his legs round and stood up. He staggered a little, unable to keep his balance, but Gwen caught him.

"What did he want?" She asked.

"To say sorry. He said he did something he regrets but couldn't bring himself to tell me what."

"Of course he did. Are you ready to go home?" Max replied.

"Sure."

"Then buckle up."

A jet of energy consumed the trio.

As they were passing between the two metaphorical planets, Miles felt something different. It almost seemed someone had thrown a brick wall at his face somewhere in the middle. However, everything seemed to be normal from then on. At least until they reached their landing point. The jet of energy hit the ground at an angle instead of vertically and the trio were sent tumbling along the ground for a short distance. Even before they'd stopped rolling, Max yelled:

"What the hell!?"

Gwen picked herself up first and frowned.

"Why are we in Los Angeles?"

"It isn't in our narrative." Max replied.

Gwen helped Miles up.

"Why are we here? Is this Michael and Liam's narrative?" He asked.

"Yeah. But why we're here…I bounced."

"Bounced?" Gwen enquired with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah. I tried to get into our narrative but just bounced straight off it and landed here."

"Is that why it felt like someone threw a brick wall at me?" Miles asked.

"Maybe. Gimme a second."

Max closed his eyes. His expression turned more and more panicked with each second then it relaxed ever so slightly. He looked at his parents.

"I…don't know what to say except I think…Null won."

"Obviously he won. You were knocked out and he dropped a skyscraper on my head." Miles replied.

"That's not what I meant. It was a stalemate, anyway. I can get us into a tiny space in Bastria but…everywhere else is just…I don't know."

"Let's go. If we can all see it might help." Gwen replied.

"Watch out for bricks."

The jet of energy consumed the trio once more.

This time, Miles didn't feel a brick wall, but something didn't feel right. When they arrived, it was very obvious what. A single square kilometre was all that remained. The light was red, just like the cloud that twisted and curled all around the last stronghold of reality. One hundred was the number of people who survived, including Miles, Gwen and Max. Gwen and Miles looked at the cloud in confusion, then around at the survivors. Max, on the other hand, stared in horror. He sank to his knees with his hands behind his head. Gwen turned to one of the survivors who she recognised but couldn't put a name to their face.

"What's happening?" She asked.

"Nothing, anymore. It was closing in before but then it stopped."

"What is it?"

"Some sort of…void. Anything that goes in it is just gone. It's destroyed all of Bastria. I don't know about Premis."

"Premis is gone too, Jacob. This is all that's left." Said Max quietly.

"But…how?" Asked Gwen.

"Null said he did something he regretted. This is it." Miles replied.

There was silence as what was happening sank in. Finally, Grace emerged from the crowd.

"Max, can you fix it?"

He shook his head, but seemed to peer deeper into the cloud.

"There's something out there. There's another patch of reality left."

"How big? How many people?" Jacob asked desperately.

"Smaller than this one. No people. Just dragons and maybe the Ethereal Plates."

By this time, another truth had dawned on Miles and Gwen: their new-born daughter was lost somewhere in that cloud. They broke down in tears, just like most of the other survivors had already done.

What could have been hours, days, weeks or months later, all of the survivors sat down to discuss what they could do. Even with the initial shock over, things were looking bleak.

"What's the food situation?" Max asked, rubbing his forehead.

"We've got enough for a few days with heavy rationing, then we die…again." Replied Jacob.

"I didn't know dead people had to eat." Said Miles.

"I'll agree it's weird." Said Jacob.

"Any idea about Death?" Asked Max.

"You know better than us." Grace replied.

"I can't sense him. He's gone."

"And the other High Elder Gods?" Asked Gwen.

"Laughing their heads off."

"So what do we do if you can't fix this? Could Null?" Asked Jacob.

"He said he couldn't." Miles replied.

"I don't have to eat. There's a solution, but it's…weird." Said Max.

"Tell us." Said some random people in the crowd.

Max bent down and seemed to inspect the dust on the ground for a moment before picking up a small, clear stone.

"This is a soul stone, not to be confused with the soul Infinity Stone. Every time someone dies and comes to Bastria, a new one appears. With any luck there's enough in this space for one for each person. My solution is to put everyone back inside one until the Ethereal Plates manage to fix stuff up. There's no concept of time inside them, so the wait will pass in a flash. As for me…I'll sit on this lonely rock and do the waiting for you all."

There was some mumbling as people discussed it between themselves until Jacob said:

"Everyone who wants to do this, raise their hand."

Just about everyone did.

"Then find yourself a soul stone and we'll do this."

By the end of what Gwen timed to be about ten hours, only she, Miles, Grace and Jacob were not in a soul stone. The others were lined up neatly on the ground. Jacob stepped forward for his turn. Max took his stone and paused.

"Jake, I want to say sorry for ditching you. I thought you didn't want to be my friend anymore."

"I did. I mean who doesn't want to be friends with a God? I was just upset about everything like everyone else."

"No hard feelings?"

Jacob gave him a wiry grin.

"No hard feelings. See you in an unknown amount of time."

"Yeah."

Max muttered some sort of spell or enchantment. Jacob seemed to dissolve into orange and blue wisps that were sucked into the stone. It took up the same colours and seemed to pulsate steadily like a beating heart. Max closed his eyes and put it down with all the others. Grace stepped up next.

"You don't have to do this alone. I can wait with you." She said.

"As much as I love you and want to spend eternity with you, I can't let you do that. It could be millennia, and that food isn't gonna last that long."

She nodded sadly and kissed him.

"I love you." She said when they broke apart.

"I love you too."

Max muttered the same words and she broke into turquoise and silver wisps. He held the stone to his heart for a few moments, then put it with the others. Miles and Gwen turned to each other.

"I guess it's only gonna be a few seconds for us." Said the former.

"No sad goodbyes, then." Said the latter.

"Yeah. 'I love you' is nice, though."

She chuckled.

"I love you too."

They kissed for a few seconds, then Miles stepped up to Max.

"I know you hate me, but please don't throw my stone in the void."

"Believe me. I've pictured it already."

"Is that supposed to be reassuring?"

"No. But we can talk things over on the other side."

"Fine with me."

He handed his son his stone. Max muttered the words and Miles turned into black and red wisps. Gwen looked around the void her son would call home for who knew how long.

"Mum?"

She turned to Max and smiled sadly.

"I never thought this would happen."

"It would've happened if Khahrahk won all those years ago."

"But he didn't. Max, be careful. We're all counting on you."

"I know what I have to do, Mum."

She pulled him into a hug which he returned, surprised at just how much he needed it.

"I know you'll blame yourself at some point, but this wasn't your fault."

"Sure, Mum. I'll figure things out."

She let him go and ruffled his hair before handing him her stone.

"Good luck."

"Bye, Mum."

"See you soon."

He said the words and she turned into black and white wisps. Max put the last stone down and looked at the collection. He put his hand to his chest, morphing his suit into ball of programmable matter. Furore Mortale clattered to the ground having been in its hilt. He ignored it and sat down on the lonely rock in the middle of the space, surveying the kingdom he'd inherited. Dei Volente lay down on the rock and closed his eyes. Time would be his only friend for the next eternity.

Crossovers in this Chapter

As many as the list of dimensions that survived: none.

Note

And so we come to the end of part 9. There's nothing left, so there's absolutely no way I could come up with another story...right? Wrong. Part 10 will be coming soon-ish, but it might be a wait since it's a long one.