Around Lila, everything froze, patrons of the bar froze in their place, the music overhead ceased, the air freezing, the only person that moved's Lila, as she turned her whole body, looking at the people in the bar, frozen in place, before she turned back, and saw him.
His intense glowing blue eyes staring into her soul like he's an adult child from 'The Village of the Damned.'
The meticulous way he tried speaking to her in English, struggling to do so, the man jogged her memory of him, and when she remembered him, she's dazed and confused, but the man was swift in bringing it to Lila's attention that she owed him.
"Help… he was never in danger!" Lila balked that she owed the man anything, he lied to her, but as she tried arguing her point, the man made it clear that she owed him for his help.
The intensity of those eyes wasn't helping Lila, the more she caught sight of them, the more she felt compelled to keep her word, that she owed the man for his help, though he made it clear it wasn't saving Theodore's life.
Fate, as he said in broken English, works in strange ways, like that.
Though, Lila countered that it's his doing, most of the time, which he didn't argue against, but insisted that she still owed him.
Confused by the wording, Lila demanded answers, and the man tells her in his odd tone of voice, "I… kept… you safe… shall… we… say…"
The man insisted that Lila owed him because he kept her safe, but he wouldn't tell her more, and despite Lila demanding answers, the man coolly informed her that she'll get her answers, in time.
Despite trying to avoid glimpsing into his glowing blue eyes, Lila sees a look in them, that the man wasn't lying to her, in time, she'll get her answers as to who or what the man kept her safe from.
In fact, the reason he reached out to her's because this will be the last time they meet, despite Lila unable to remember the previous encounters, until the man allowed her.
After this, she will never remember him, her memories of him will never resurface, and that's that.
Try to write everything down, it'll become incomprehensible mess, have Theodore investigate her mind, he'll never find anything.
"So, you're just gonna collect your payment and bounce?" Lila summed the man's plans and he affirmed that, yes, it was like that, though refused to give her details as to why suddenly he sought her out.
Tilting his head, the man tells her what he wanted from her, "He… must… live."
Dodgy, he won't elaborate, so Lila assumed that he meant Theodore, and despite her attempts, he won't tell her what's going on, other than he wanted to show her something.
Something.
He didn't give Lila a choice in the matter, he reached out to take her hand, when her mind caught up to her, she sees they're in a destroyed city, everything ravaged, burning, turned over cars, looked like a disaster movie, until her chestnut eyes fell to the felled bodies of people laying on the street.
Some had blue lips with their eyes frozen open, like they asphyxiated, some were… were in… were in pieces!
Mortified, Lila had no words as she saw the sight, catching a glimpse, of someone… split in half, from the top of their head to their groin!
Looked like an officer who lost against someone.
The calm man stood beside her, as he tells her in a listless, "This… was… a… possible… future…"
Standing in silence, Lila watched the aftermath of a war, with no survivors, and as she did, she caught sight of someone moving through the carnage.
Through the smoke the figure moved, but there Lila sees, a tall man wearing a purple outfit, but something's amiss, he had a pale white face…
But… it wasn't… a face…
It looked more like a mask she saw in Louisiana during Mardi Gras, but as the man moved, she realized the truth: it was his face.
Slow and methodical, the man moved around the carnage, though eyeless, he seemingly looked over the bodies of the people massacred.
As he looked around, Lila's able to see clearly, the man had no discernible features, no teeth, no eyes, but the face looked like a molded mask, and yet despite this, even though he had no eyes, Lila felt complete dread having him close to her.
Warning signs thrown up, that this wasn't someone Lila dealt with before, hair standing on the back of her neck, it's like looking at a nightmare.
A walking nightmare.
"Wh… what?" Lila finally spoke as she watched the man walk over bodies, didn't register the two as they stood to the side, but the man wouldn't answer, as he took them somewhere else.
The next scene that the man brought them, Lila sees they've been taken to a kitchen, with a large group of men in similar purple clothing, except one man in blue.
The men in purple with their sharpened teeth and wild eyes, they chortled and screamed at Ben someone begging for his life.
Meanwhile, the man in blue, he stood quietly, an intense look in his blue eyes.
Screaming back at them, Lila was able to recognize the man…
Ben…?
He's been shaved, his clothes stripped from him, begging, but the men weren't listening to him, the men strong arming him forced him towards a large boiling cauldron towards the back of the kitchen, as Lila's unable to do anything but watch, she sees the same man from before, among the others, watching with interest.
He was next to a woman staring blankly towards the cauldron after someone bumped into her, but she didn't react, she simply watched, but there's life behind those dark eyes.
If eyes were windows to the souls, this woman couldn't escape from them, if she tried, and it was likely the work of that man, from before.
Forced to the top of the steps, the naked and petrified Ben's overlooking the men watching with intent, knowing what's to happen, and as Lila helplessly watched one of the men creeping behind Ben, slicing his Achilles heels with one fell swoop.
Lila didn't get to see what'd transpired after; the man took them away, thankfully sparing her the sight of what happened to Ben.
Didn't need an imagination for what happened to him, though marathoning horror movies didn't prepare her for that sight.
When her mind caught up to her, Lila sees they're somewhere else again, this time overlooking an army of people wearing red like it's the Revolutionary War, all with similar faces as the first man in purple, unsheathing their swords against a helpless group of officers, as they're incapable of fighting against the people in red, as they descended on them, their swords raised high.
Slaughtered in seconds, the officers didn't have a chance, by the time the people in red finished, there was little left to identify the slain officers, and they calmly walked off, leaving behind a bloody scene.
"What… why?!" Lila demanded to know what happened, why those men killed Ben, what's going on, and the man simply told her, this was a possible future.
Possible as an operative word.
In a different world, quite like Lila and Theodore's, this was a possible future, wherein an army took over and put Earth in a chokehold, far worse than the Daleks and Cybermen could hoped.
Only they weren't interested in ruling Earth or its ashes, they took what they wanted, in the way of people like Cybermen, but slayed the rest, and the man showed her how this army had its own flock of the Drekker and Sabbek working with it, willingly, taking what they want from the humans.
Seeing the unflinching Drekker, roaming the hospital, undeterred by the soft lights above, they slaughtered entire wings, helpless victims unable to escape from them, as they picked their quarry meticulously, it sent dread down Lila's spine.
A quick flash, she's watching the flock of Sabbek descend upon the screaming people corralled by them, their Matriarch watching the massacre with the cold calculating gaze on her face.
There wasn't anything left of the people shredded by the Sabbek, much of it impossible for Lila to see, as she turned her head away in disgust, feeling her stomach gurgling as the sight of all that blood…
Anyone left were taken by force by the Sabbek to be turned into more like them or the Drekker.
"Why… why are you showing me?" Lila struggled to breathe, before they're taken elsewhere, and the man informed her, "To show… what… was… a future… without… my intervention… this might've… been… yours."
The next scene that Lila was forced to witness, she sees two men struggling, but one easily began overpowering another, the one that couldn't overcome it howled in pain as the overpowering man done something to him.
Falling on the ground, his blue eyes frozen in fear, Lila's able to see that this man looked like…
"M-mister Smith?" Lila squeaked as she recognized him, but the man told her that this wasn't the late Mr. Smith, someone else who shared his face, who wasn't an alien, just a man.
Seeing the man dead on the ground, it furthered horrified Lila, until she saw the man who killed him, the same man she saw, the one in purple.
"Who… who is he?" Lila wanted to know what the connection was to this man, why he killed the look-alike, but once more, the strange man taking her through these segments in time wouldn't tell her anything without a reason.
His face contorted in a disapproving matter as he tells Lila this, "You… will… meet… him."
The way he said it, there's a bit of fear in his odd tone of voice, that even though he seemed more powerful than any being Lila ever encountered since she began traveling with Theodore, this man scared him.
However, this fleeting fear quickly disappeared from the man, as he proceeded to tell her, almost like an order, "You… must… live… so that… he… may… live."
Forever an enigma, the man won't tell her who he's referring to, so Lila assumed that he meant Theodore, once again, but without a confirmation from the man, it's all she must go on.
Not that it mattered.
Showing her everything in the span of seconds, Lila felt nauseated by the end, but it's enough for her to understand that there's a reason for the man to come to her once, again.
And it had something to do with that man in purple.
"I… must… warn you… this… is the last… time… we will… meet… Miss… Watson… know that… the events that… will happen… must… happen… for a… reason… but… I have… faith… that you… all… will… succeed… though… prepare for unforeseen consequences," the man spoke to her for one final time, before returning Lila to the bar, in her chair, with everything in her mind a complete blank.
When her mind finally came back to her, Lila's confused as she looked around, everyone animating with joy as they huddled together with their drinks, B'eemix pouring them by the handfuls as music blared over the speakers.
Turning her head, Lila sees Theodore returning from the bathroom, stretching as he took his seat next to her, his icy blue eyes moving towards her, confusion on his face, as he pointed out that she looked pale as a ghost.
"Are you alright?" Theodore asks her, as she shrugged, watching as he raised his large hand to touch her forehead, touching the sides of her neck, before remarking that it's almost as though she saw a ghost.
Shaking her head, Lila goes, "Hm, must be the drink, a little too high for my taste."
Coming around to check on them, noticing the look on Lila's face, B'eemix warns her that mixing hers and Theodore's drink could result in a minor side-effect, it's the two different phosphates in the drinks reacting to one another, nothing serious that a cold tall glass of water can't cure, but warned Lila against from drinking both at the same time, again.
Nodding, Lila apologizes for the mix-up, but B'eemix tells her that she wasn't the first customer he had that did it, trust him, since he moved into bartending from his stint at the old resort, he seen it, all.
Once the paleness left her face and she's back to her normal self, things resumed as normal, this time Lila didn't drink both the drinks, again, sticking with hers, until they finally paid the tab, and left the bar.
"I'm pretty warm, how about you?" Lila chuckled as Theodore wore oversized sunglasses as he walked with her.
Shrugging, Theodore says he's comparatively warm, but there's only one way to be sure.
"Have to wait an hour, Teddi," Lila reminded him of the rules, but he insisted he wasn't swimming.
Giggling, Lila walked with him, arms interlocked, as they spent the last hours on Mars, before returning home.
"He… mustn't… win," warns a silent voice, muffled by the ambiance.
THE END