Chapter 15 A Common Enemy

Alex

July 23rd, 2017

3:19 PM

USCC Oregon

Mediterranean Sea

To think I once knew my Dad but never knew my Mom. I would've never have thought my skank ass Aunt to be my actual mother in all these years I've been alive. Fuck my life. Vanessa does not deserve to be my Mom after giving me away to Bryan like she doesn't care. And she didn't. Not after how much I've been dirt on her boots for as long as I've been an air breather either. Some lie I've been living with my father who I once believed to be the honest man in the world to me. He's had his share of other secrets but this is the biggest yet.

Max, Chloe, and I marched our way to the science deck down the halls of each deck as ordered. Still processing the daunting truth.

"You should not have acted that in front of Mom," said Max. "Or even spoken to her that way either."

"Like she never acted nor spoken to me that way either?" I thought.

"That serves you no right."

"That serves me every right! Even when I was never doing wrong by either you or her, she still treated me like shit."

"Well, maybe Bryan's story is a better understanding of why," said Chloe.

"The fuck it is," I said. "First of all, a real mom doesn't just hand over her child to someone else who would give better shits than she would. Second of all, I may not have made the best decisions in my life for Max and I but Vanessa doesn't get to decide to threaten my relations with my cousin or sister, whoever the fuck. At all!"

"Maybe it does, Alex. I used to say the same things about David. In the end, he was always right and I saw through the errors of my ways and he decided to be more accepting between Max and me."

"And maybe if you start doing right by her," said Max. "She wouldn't be a bitch to you either."

"What exactly can I do right by her to make up for what I've done?" I questioned.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that we get our asses to the science deck and debate about this later. I too have to process the fact that we're no longer surrogate sister but biological sisters. Now let's get over ourselves and move it along."

Max

July 23rd, 2017

3:23 PM

USCC Oregon

Mediterranean Sea

The three of us enter the science deck and enter a room with a holo-table. Where David, Kristine, Cayce, and Dr. Hendricks are waiting for us. The four of them catch us entering the room.

"There they are," pointed David. "The traveler, her cousin, and my step-child."

We should probably tell them to address Alex and me as sisters now but now isn't the time.

"Ah, Ms. Caulfield," said Hendricks with a smile. "It's been quite some time. Dr. Kara Hendricks Not sure if you recall me but we met years ago at Chrysalis HQ before the trial. I worked with the late Dr. Sebian Sorenson studying your power."

"You've refreshed my memory, Dr. Hendricks," I said while shaking her hand. "What exactly brings us here, then?"

"Ms. Caulfield, I don't suppose the word Eternium means anything to you, does it? If the answer's no, then here it is."

Hendricks held a petri dish containing a bright yellow pebble inside. Wish looked almost like one of the Eternity Shards but different in shape.

"What is it?" I asked.

Hendrick removed the Eternium from the dish and placed it on the holo-table. Projecting a global map with a yellow illumination rotating over the table. With dots highlighting certain regions of the globe.

"What is this?" Alex asked.

"This here is Eternium," replied Hendricks. "This single element isn't just an old space rock. It's a device of unknown origin no doubt our adversaries ConDef and this Ares figure you speak of wanted for themselves. A former colleague of ours, Dr. Ethan Brainer from MIT, says in his notes that Eternium is a one-of-a-kind device capable of connecting to any living being on the planet that not even Chrysalis's military infrastructure could measure to. Another thing, it's all connected to this."

Hendricks held a book in her hand with EPJ printed on the cover. Whatever it was. I took it from the doctor to take a look at the pages as I opened it.

"It's the journal of Ezra Prescott, Jr.," she said. "There's a dialect of Greek descent I've been spending hours deciphering but with no such luck. With you out there figuring out this unprecedented crisis, I had hoped you might know more about what's in that journal."

Ezra Prescott, Jr. as far as I remember was Ezra Prescott, Sr.'s son. The man who was killed by a head-on crash on his motorbike that I mention back at Joanna's lair in Vancouver. And this was his journal I was holding. Seeing the dialect Hendricks mentioned that even I can't seem to know much about myself.

"Where did you get this?" I wondered.

"Cayce, Kristine, and I found that under a church in Canyon Springs," said David. "The town your friend Kate and her family moved to in Utah."

"You found this where Kate was living? Canyon Springs of all places?"

"Holy crap, Max," said Alex.

"What?"

"I know that dialect. Let me see that."

Alex takes the journal to see what's written.

"So, how would you know what's written there?" Chloe asked.

"Son of a gun, Max," said Alex. "Doctor, this isn't just some traditional Greek language. It's dialect formed by the Dark Order. Ares's freak cult we met on Meridian. It says here in English: 'One who possesses Eternium shall see the world remade with infinite potential.' Okay, to make sense of it, I assume everyone in this room knows what the Eternal Shards are capable of. Looking at this map here shows us the ratio or the estimate of who can be affected by the power of the shards themselves. As well as the Ark of Genesis with them. Assuming no one here needs a history lesson on that either?"

"You might have lost us a little there at Ark of Genesis," said Cayce.

"The Ark of Genesis is what Ares is hunting down on that island. A machine that has an interrelationship with the Eternity Shards that Ares needs activating for the shards to work for his purpose. He succeeds, we fail. And if he does succeed, you all should know what happens to our universe. We succeed, and it's the circumstances to the contrary."

"You know a lot for your own good coming from that journal," said Kristine suspiciously. "How would you know how to read that dialect anyhow?"

Alex paused with her face widened a little.

"I…did my homework…is all," she answered hollowly.

And by homework, she must mean HOW. Something no one else but Chloe and I can know about. Unless Kristine already knows too knowing her family comes from the same place.

Suddenly, the room was flashing red lights. With a warning on the intercom.

"Mayday! Mayday! We have a breach on the flight deck! I repeat, we have a breach an unknown stowaway on the flight deck and need any armed personnel to secure him now!"

"What the actual fuck," said Cayce.

"Admiral Penske, what's going on up there?!" David called on his communicator.

"We've got ourselves a stowaway that appeared out of nowhere on the outer hangar bay," answered Penske. "Witnesses say he walked through a portal to get there. I have security personnel training guns on him right now."

"You don't suppose that Ares is up there ready to sink this battleship, do ya?" Alex thought. "We've seen what that motherfucker can do and I'll be fucked if we have to experience that here."

"Commander Madsen, you'd want to hear this," said Penske.

"What is it?" David responded.

"Our stowaway says he comes in peace and wants to surrender in our custody. He's identified himself as Chronos and will only speak to Max Caulfield. You should bring her over there immediately."

Chronos? Why is he here? Going alone on a Chrysalis vessel packed with armed troops doesn't sound like him at all.

"Copy that," said David "We'll bring her in."

I go outside the outdoor hanger with Alex, Chloe, David, Cayce, and Kristine where we see a dozen troops wearing flight suits and caps or combat gear who have Chronos surrounded. Aiming rifles at each corner that they heard around him. The Admiral and Captain of the Oregon are present as well to investigate Chronos's unannounced entry. Chronos himself has is down on his knees and with his hands placed at the rear of his head.

My group and I step into the ground and I'm able to look at Chronos in the eye as he sees me approaching. Raising his head to stare back at me. Whatever Chronos's game is here, it seems too out of place for him to be here.

"You got who you came here for," said Penske. "Start talking or my men will open fire no matter how immortal you think you are."

"None of you have any reason to trust me, Admiral," said Chronos. "But it is Max who has trusted me. I expect she could vouch for me whatever the circumstances are."

"Is it true, Ms. Caulfield?"

"It's complicated, Admiral," I said. "Please, let me speak to him. Don't do anything unless he does."

Penske waved his hand at Chronos's direction. Allowing me to speak with my enemy of my enemy who I've made my friend.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned Chronos. "These men could've shot you down without hesitation."

"I have survived far worse encounters than those who spend their lives taking others by the barrels of their guns. I have come to make due on my word, Max. As I've said when we last met. I am here to help your fight against Ares. No more. No less."

"I'm not so sure you are," said Penske.

"Neither was Max when we saw each other again. I understand you've deemed me responsible for the incident in Portland but I am not. I also understand you have the Eternium on board. Which isn't what you believe it is."

"Explain then what it is."

"Eternium is not simply a rare elemental entity. It is a matrix that acknowledges every life form born on your world who could be affected by my grandson's efforts."

"I think we figured that part out already," said Alex.

"It is also an element Ares wanted to monitor the world as he proclaims to remake it. I have come here to protect it by order of the Sisters of Fate as no one else can. And to find a place to meditate on a plan the traveler will need to win the war."

"And why should we believe you as Max somehow does?"

"Because we now have a common enemy. That is my final word."

"Admiral, I am not letting this monstrosity on my ship," said the Captain. "Especially with refugees on board! We've seen what he's done to Portland!"

"Max, this seems too good to be true and you know it," said Chloe. "After all he's done to you, how can you consider thinking he'd let you have that shard hang around your neck for keeps? We shouldn't let him be here! For my mom's sake, David's sake, and my sake!"

"Ms. Caulfield, just say the word," said Penske. "And I'll fathom letting him on or off the Oregon as you see fit."

X/SQUARE/LM – TRUST CHRONOS

B/CIRCLE/RM – UNTRUST CHRONOS

"Let him on, Admiral," I said. "It was never Chronos who orchestrated Portland. Ares started Triple 4 and stayed back to watch while Chronos was his puppet. You don't have to believe him but believe me if you can."

Penske put his hand over his eyes in disbelief. Everyone should be impressed by my reasons to trust Chronos but now isn't the time to reopen old wounds. Now is the time to sow them up and fight through them.

"Restrain the prisoner," ordered Penske. "Put him on the detention deck in holding. Don't let him out of your sight."

"Yes, sir," said a troop.

"Don't get too, cozy," said Penske to Chronos. "If you don't give us what you say you are, there will be consequences you won't enjoy."

They had locked Chronos inside an interrogation chamber on the detention deck. Bound to a gurney with cufflinks to strain him from his wrist, ankles, and neck. There were guards in the room securing Chronos standing guard next to each corner inside. I was staring at Chronos through a glass wall outside of the room. Where Alex, Chloe, Rachel, and David were with me as well. Debating about what we should happen to Chronos and if I was right to trust.

"I don't believe for one bit the Admiral let you decide to let this megalomaniac who helped Crosby destroy half of Portland on this ship," said Rachel.

"And yet here we are," said Chloe. "With that megalomaniac who helped that other megalomaniac try to kill us and turn Portland into a state-of-emergency zone."

"What we should be worried about is our plan to take that ark from Ares before the debriefing starts in less than half an hour," said Alex.

"What we should be worried about is why in the hell would you and your cousin trust Chronos of all people?" David asked. "Whatever plan you think you're gonna spit out in that war room better be a good one."

"And it will, David," assured Alex. "No one's asking you to trust the almighty god of time here. But I am asking you to trust us if you can."

"It just doesn't make any sense," said Rachel. "Why would Chronos just out of the blue let you have the Time Shard and help you two? After all that he did in Portland? Forty-thousand lives lost because of his and Crosby's ego? Max, you there with Alex when he gave you that shard. Tell me, just give us one good reason Chronos should be trusted?"

"I'll give you three good ones," I said. "One, we're desperate. Two, no Time Shard means no ark. Three, Chronos directly told Alex and I that it was never himself who started Triple 4. It was Ares who constructed it. He's the one who had influenced Chronos and Crosby to do his bidding and unleash Elysium into our world. He likely influenced Sean Prescott, Alexei Ranikov, and the rest of Neo-Chrysalis with them. As he's now influencing Joanna Prescott, Alkaline, the Dark Order, and the Continuum Defense Front. Don't know how. Don't really care. But since Portland was never Chronos's fault, that is why I made a deal with him to take the shard and let him take control of it should he have to."

"And why do you get to control that shard and nobody else can?" Rachel asked.

"Because I'm a traveler. I have the power I've had for four years in experience and I will protect this shard to my dying breath if I have to! That is why he only let me take control."

"Speaking of control," said Alex. "Why is the shard glowing like that?"

I look down to see the glowing green on my chest. I pick it up with my two fingers while it was still worn around my neck.

"Commander Madsen! Chronos is onto something!" The guard said through the intercom. "Get in here now!"

The five of us rush inside and see Chonos retrained to his gurney twitching like a wooden puppet while the guards had their rifles trained on him. There was this green essence shroud around his body from head to toe. Twitching his head and arms left and right. Understandably, it could explain the shard glowing. I hustle towards to try and get him under control.

I snap his name out loud a couple of times until Chronos then snap out of it and take a breath. He looks at me catching his breath and panting.

"Chronos what were you doing?!" I bickered.

"I don't know what you just did," said David. "But I'd answer her question right now!"

David aimed his pistol at Chronos. Chronos spoke up.

"I had ventured forward in time," he answered. "To foreknow every last future, possibility, and outcome to win the war."

"How many did you see?" Alex asked.

"Fourteen-million-six-hundred and five concisely."

"How many did we win?"

The god of time himself hesitated to answer at first. Glancing at I the traveler with a troubled smirk. Staring at me like it's the least we'd see each other. At least a second or two later is when we have the answer to my question.

"One."

Note: It hasn't gone any better in this unprecedented era of COVID-19. But not to be morbid as I know nothing last forever. Not even the virus that has hindered our everyday lives.

I've played The Last of Us Part II and I'll be the first to say (if I am) that I enjoyed it better than Part I. You'll probably disagree with me if you played it but I don't care. For reasons why I will remain silent for spoiler's sake. There's always something to occupy ourselves indoors safe from this pandemic including wrapping up this story. I've also started my second playthrough of TLOU2 and I'm also replaying the Assassin's Creed Ezio Trilogy on the Ezio Collection with my playthrough of Assassin's Creed Odyssey complete before the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and replaying the Halo games on the Master Chief Collection before the release of Halo Infinite. Still more I like to do in my free time under quarantine than writing this story but patience is indeed a virtue. Which we're all gonna need to survive C19.

Until next time, stay tuned, stay safe, stay indoors, and stay golden!