Part 11 - We Could Burn It All Down

Chapter 187 - Spat Out

"I don't know what's happening, but be careful how you twist the past. You may just make it worse."

Dei Volente sat back down on his lonely rock again as the strange blur disappeared. He knew who it was, and it confused him, but it didn't matter. For now only the present was his concern.

Jacob, Gwen and Miles were spat out of a rift in time, landing in a heap on a rooftop in a city at night. Jacob picked himself up first, and Miles pushed Gwen off. She sat up and groaned, then rounded on Jacob.

"What the hell was that?"

"An accident, mostly."

"Jacob. Don't start talking in riddles. Just tell us what that was and where we are."

"OK…how to explain…You know that feature on your phone where you're scrolling and suddenly the page just goes right back to the top?"

"I hate that. I think it's when you tap the top of the screen." Miles replied.

Jacob nodded, morphing his mask away and lowering his hood then continuing:

"So I just used the opposite of 'time wills it', a.k.a. 'time doesn't will it', to reverse time and get us away from that priest guy before he killed us. The thing is I kind of picked the wrong time because I was panicking that he'd attack us."

"Where are we? And when?" Gwen demanded.

"We're in New York, I think. That's the Empire State over there, anyway. I've no idea when, though."

Miles walked to the edge of the roof and looked down.

"I think there was a riot. There's burnt out cars, smashed windows, and I dunno what else."

Gwen crouched down next to him and sighed.

"Let's go and see what's happening."

The spiders and Jacob dropped down into an alleyway. From here, they could hear people yelling from the street. Their words were indescernable.

"Maybe if we do some dumpster diving we can find a 'use by' date on some food packaging? It'd give us a clue." Jacob suggested.

"On you go. We'll wait." Gwen replied.

Jacob shrugged and set to work looking in bin bags and in bins. He disturbed more than enough rats for the spiders' tastes, but he ignored them. Eventually, he pulled a bit of packaging from some sort of ready-meal out a bin and looked it over, finding a date.

"Told you I'd find…oh, that's not good."

"What? When are we?" Miles pressed.

"The date on this is…the 29th of October, 2028."

"What's 'oh no' about that?" Gwen asked.

"You don't remember? Oh…you're from a different timeline. Right. Err…it's two days after the collapse of the Empire. Gwen, you're being hunted for the murder of millions. Miles, you're missing in action and presumed to be helping her."

"That you are. Hands up, all three of you." Commanded a stern, female voice.

It sounded familiar, and Jacob's expression was one of recognition.

"Miles, Gwen, turn round very slowly. And take your masks down. Don't try anything; this is a .50 cal pistol."

The trio followed the instructions and found themselves staring at Teresa who looked unsurprisingly on edge.

"Teresa, we aren't us." Gwen tried to reason.

Teresa raised her eyebrows.

"How many times have you been hit in the head?"

"A lot."

"Exactly. On the ground; I'm taking you in. You too, Red Cape."

The last remark was at Jacob, who shook his head.

"She's telling the truth. My name is Jacob; I won't be born for about five years in this timeline. This isn't how history remembers this moment."

"And how does 'history' remember this moment?"

"In a few days you'll take charge of the manhunt for former Empress Gwen and convince Miles to betray her. She'll be put on trial and sentenced to death, but you'll convince the court to change it to exile from Earth for five years."

Teresa looked a little confused, but on the verge of accepting the explanation.

"Go on. Tell me where I'll find Miles to convince him to betray her."

"I'm not sure exactly, but I know a story about him getting pizza in New York, 7065. Which dimension even is this?"

"9630. One question: how do you know all this? History tends to be a lot more vague than that."

"The pizza thing's just an old story; probably complete crap. As for why it's all well-documented: you're a soldier, you make a report at the end of every mission. And they teach us this stuff in first year history at school. Or they did. Will?"

Teresa cautiously holstered her weapon, then glanced behind her. Miles and Gwen stood up slowly and lowered their hands.

"If you're from the future, how did you get here?"

"Blame Jacob." Gwen replied grumpily.

"It's complicated, and not important." Jacob replied.

Teresa looked irritated at the reply, but then thoughtful. After a moment she said:

"What do you plan to do in the past?"

"We don't have a plan. We didn't mean to come here." Said Jacob.

"We could stop the Scarlet King?" Miles suggested.

"Stop him? He helped us win the final battle." Teresa enquired.

"Does he have the Scarlet Crucible yet?" Asked Gwen.

"No. We plan to give it to him in two days' time."

"That'll come back to bite." Miles mused.

"That was a deal that you made, Miles." Teresa replied.

"Yeah, well hindsight's a pain."

"You can't give the Scarlet King the Crucible, Teresa. He'll annihilate everything." Gwen explained.

"Why? He helped us. What reason does he have to hate us?"

"Because I killed him to get the Animator. And because he's spent his entire existence trying to destroy everything. In twenty years, he'll start his war with an assassination attempt on Miles."

"That was the GOC." Miles corrected.

"Oh yeah. I…forgot about that saga. Anyway, he'll send SCP-096 to kill Max and Charlotte and it'll kill Charlotte…"

"Who?"

"Charlotte was mine and Gwen's second kid. Max was our third." Miles explained.

"OK."

"The King goes on to die some more and reaches his seventh form at which point he becomes unstoppable. It cost all of reality to beat him, killing everyone and everything."

"And why should I believe all this?"

"Do you want to know how you die?" Asked Jacob.

"Don't we all?"

"You're killed in the Battle of Zaltoxir by a Scarlet Golem. It was the only time he used them."

"So convincing. I've heard enough, people. I believe you're from the future, so you're free to go. But if you interfere in anything and cause any damage to reality, I will destroy you. Understood?"

"Understood." The trio responded.

"Good. Now stay out of sight and out my mind."

With that the two spiders and Jacob returned to the roof of the tower.

"What do we do now?" Miles asked.

"Isn't it obvious? We have a chance to change the past. We could stop so many bad things happening: the Scarlet King, what happened to Max, the list is endless." Gwen replied.

"I don't think that's how it works. Major events like the Scarlet King are cemented in time." Said Jacob.

"We have to try. We could at least help Max."

"That won't work either. As much as I hate that it happened, if we stop it from happening he'll never gain the strength or cold blood that let's him be Dei Volente. And if he doesn't become Dei Volente, we all lose. We could burn it all down."

"I'm with Gwen. We have to do something. We have a chance to change some of the worst things that ever happened, and we can't throw it away." Said Miles.

Jacob face-palmed.

"Didn't you listen to anything I just said?"

"You said you didn't 'think' that's how it works. That means it might not be how it works."

"Fine. Whatever. Go get yourselves killed. I'll go and make a life for myself."

The Void Warrior walked to the edge of the building and began walking down the side to the street below. Miles and Gwen looked at each other sadly, but then Gwen put her serious face on and said:

"We need to stop Khahrahk getting the Crucible."

"But where?"

"That's the million dollar question."

"We could ask Teresa?"

"She said she'd destroy us if we interfered, and I remember her being the one who usually kept her word. She won't tell us."

"It seems like the kinda thing they'd put all over the news."

"At least we have Google again."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- SCP Foundation

Yep…guess who's the star of the final part…