Chapter Eighty-Eight: I'll See You Again
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler…"
Speaking at a ghost of a whisper, Cass quietly recited from memory one of her favorite poems.
Right now, Robert Frost was her only friend. He was the only one who could distract her from the tightly locked door of the tiny utility closet, the cold metal floor, the claustrophobic walls-
Cass closed her eyes, inhaling a gentle breath. It was like the Silent Dungeon all over again. She was on the verge of spiraling off into a panic attack, and did not want to give the Dignitary the satisfaction of witnessing such an episode. After releasing the gentle breath, she continued to whisper the next part of the poem. When she reached the end, Cass promptly returned to the beginning and started anew.
How many times had she already repeated this cycle? Cass had no idea. She'd lost track.
Time passed very strangely behind a locked door and windowless walls. Sometimes it did not seem to pass at all, and Cass could only wonder if she was awake or dreaming a nightmare.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference…" Cass's voice tapered off as she finished her latest recitation of the poem, pondering those last few words.
Had she taken another road, would she be sitting in this locked room?
Maybe it was time for a new poem.
A sudden metallic clunk shattered the oppressive silence.
Slowly the closet door swung open.
Despite nearly jumping out of her skin from the surprise, Cass was profoundly grateful for the interruption to utility closet life.
Cass's gratitude did not last long: He was back.
The Draconian Dignitary waited beyond the open door, smiling a cold smile that did not reach his eyes. He extended a hand to help Cass off the floor.
Silently Cass stood up on her own, ignoring the Dignitary's offer of assistance. She stepped into the corridor, past the two armed guards posted outside her door, taking a moment to savor life beyond the cell.
Amused, the Dignitary turned away and set off down the corridor at a brisk pace.
One of the armed guards prodded Cass between the shoulder blades with the barrel of their rifle, forcing her to stumble forward. Questions raced through her mind, but she felt speaking first would give the Dignitary more power, so no questions were given voice.
Sealed doors waited at the end of the corridor, barring any unauthorized passage. The Dignitary leaned towards a retinal scanner embedded in one of the doors. The scanner chirped, its red light changing to blue. The doors hissed open, revealing the vast interior of a warehouse filled with mountains of backlogged mail.
After spending an indeterminate stretch of time in her claustrophobic cell, transitioning suddenly to an immensely spacious warehouse made Cass feel naked and vulnerable. Looking up, she could see DUSKFALL POSTAL emblazoned in regular intervals across the ceiling, amidst the bright halogen lights.
Mounted in the center of the warehouse interior was a large transportalizer pad. Cass watched a pair of commandos lug a heavy crate of ammunition onto the pad, vanishing in a flash of light.
On one side of the warehouse, commandos had cleared away the piles of mail and erected dozens of collapsible metal shelving units, stocking them with medical supplies, rations, and ammunition. A small team of clipboard-wielding quartermasters paced slowly about the shelves, taking inventory.
Medics had taken over the opposite side of the warehouse, setting up three operating tables and multiple rows of cots, several of which were occupied by recovering wounded. Blood dripped from the operating tables as surgeons worked diligently to save lives. Slumped against the wall, covered with bloodied sheets, were the commandos who didn't make it.
The Dignitary led Cass towards the supply depot, armed guards close on their heels. The quartermasters all stopped to salute for a moment before returning to their inventory. Ignoring them, the Dignitary brought Cass past the shelving units to the warehouse wall, where a black metal box had been placed under the watchful eyes of half a dozen commandos.
Cass could easily have fit inside the box standing up, and would have had about as much room as she'd had in her tiny cell. Inlaid within each side of the metal box were sixteen luminescent cyan-white crystals no bigger than cherries, arranged in neat symmetrical four-by-four grids. They glowed gently, emitting a soft, nearly subperceptual hum.
"This is omnicrystal, Sylph." The Dignitary broke the silence, tapping one of the crystals. "A gift from our mining operations on the Muse's planet. Curious, isn't it? This beautiful crystal has powered our weapons, our ships, even Derse itself for millennia. Yet only within the past century did we discover what happens when it resonates at high frequencies. Open the cage," he ordered the commando in charge of the guard detail, taking a step back.
The senior commando produced a small remote from a pouch on her belt, pressing one of its buttons. The front face of the box parted with a pneumatic hiss from the adjacent sides, unfolding slowly to the ground like the landing ramp of a shuttle.
Adamsprite had seen better days. He lay sprawled and unconscious on the floor of the box's cramped interior, the once vibrant ruby luminescence of his body now paled to a dull pink, with a murky discordant brown settling over the spots where he'd been struck by Gino's darkness.
Cass nearly jumped in surprise when Adamsprite's eyelids parted. How was he awake?
The Dignitary looked impressed.
"Cass?" Adamsprite reached towards her, his voice very quiet. "Cass, I-" The omnicrystal flared angrily as his hand was about to leave the box, its gentle hum focusing suddenly to a high piercing whine.
Only after Adamsprite screeched and yanked back his scalded hand did the omnicrystal calm down, returning to its gentle hum.
"Close it up," ordered the Dignitary.
"Adam, are you okay?" Cass called to Adamsprite as the front face of the cage folded back up.
"Peachy," was all Adamsprite managed to say before the cage sealed.
"I'm getting you out! Hear me?"
The Dignitary gave a quick nod to Cass's armed guards.
"I'm getting you—" Cass was interrupted by a stern rifle butt to the back of her head, jarring her entire world and throwing off all sense of balance.
"I did not bring you here for a conversation," said the Dignitary. "I brought you here for an intriguing demonstration of how a cage can be created from sound. Also, to remind you: the moment you deviate from what we agreed will be the moment your friend in the cage embarks on a slow, painful death. Walk with me."
Instinct nudged Cass forward before either of her guards could offer any encouragement. Ears ringing, head throbbing, she stumbled after the Dignitary back the way they'd come, passing the quartermasters, approaching the transportalizer pad in the middle of the warehouse.
Once more the transportalizer flashed white. Two stretcher-bearers emerged, carrying a convulsing commando who'd been shot through the stomach. They brought the wounded commando to the aid station, transferring him from the stretcher to an open operating table, where a nurse administered a sedative before removing the commando's armor and cleaning his wound.
The Dignitary stopped in front of the transportalizer pad. "Through here lies a warzone," he warned. "There will be many distractions, but I trust you will keep focused. Will the minor head trauma you just suffered impair your ability to fulfill your mission?"
A direct question had been asked. Although thus far she'd successfully avoided engaging in conversation with the Dignitary, Cass knew a response was necessary. But that did not mean she had to be verbose: "No."
"And what is your mission?"
"I'm asking for unconditional surrender."
From a pocket on the inside of his suit jacket, the Dignitary produced a tiny wireless mic the size and shape of a button, giving it to Cass. "Place this in one of your pockets, if you would be so kind. I will be listening to every word you say." He turned his head slightly to reveal a small black earpiece nestled in his left ear. "Remember who pays the price if you decide to go off-script. Any last questions?"
Cass imagined tying him down, dousing him with gasoline, salting his eyes, and setting him ablaze.
"Very good. Shall we?" The Dignitary turned away and stepped onto the transportalizer pad, vanishing in the customary flash of white light.
As she approached the transportalizer, Cass's mind was already spinning faster than a pulsar, scanning desperately for any possible way to end this in her favor. Surely there was a way out. There had to be.
Time to stop reacting to the Queen's moves.
"This is some weird shit, right?" Tami asked, staring at the sixteen babies crawling around the ectobiological appearifier pad. One particular baby girl with black hair and green eyes had piqued her curiosity. "I mean, this is just weeeird."
"Yeah," added Cruz, "would you mind rewinding to the bit about those babies being…you know…us? That wispy little bombshell? Would you mind walking me through that again?"
Chela began to explain while she opened her shoulder bag, "Mejito, I know this is a lot to-"
"What part don't you understand?" interrupted Anna. "We were born in this room, grew up, and today caused ourselves to be born. Textbook stable time loop."
"Fucking shit, Anna." Cruz shuddered. "Am I the only one bothered by this? Are we even human? What are we?"
"We weren't even fetuses…" muttered Tami. "We were all just slimy goop in jars."
Anna shrugged. "I feel human."
"Slimy goop. In jars."
"We have human DNA-" continued Anna.
"No." Now it was Cruz's turn to interrupt. "That fetus slime was made from our DNA, and we haven't established whether or not we're human. How do we even prove something like that?"
"Stop." Chela's commanding voice did not need raising to bring silence to the room. From her shoulder bag, she had produced a pack of diapers. "Everyone take three. These precious souls need tending to before we send them on their way."
"Before we what now?" Tami accepted three diapers from Chela. "Send them on their way? Are we sticking them in envelopes and mailing them?"
"Even better," said Abigail, who took her three diapers and got to work. She picked up a familiar baby boy with red eyes just like hers, kissing him gently on the forehead before diapering him. "We're sending them to Earth via meteor."
"Sounds real safe," Tami quipped, putting a diaper on a baby who appeared to be a little Gino. Or perhaps it was Gino's dad.
"Well if something went wrong and the babies died in transit, then they wouldn't have existed to begin with because we wouldn't be here to create them," Anna pointed out. "Then again, maybe they could still die, and we'd just fade from existence. Or find ourselves in an alternate timeline where…" She trailed off for a moment, then wrinkled her nose before thinking too much about it. "Nah… They'll be fine. We'll be fine. It'll all be fine."
Tami groaned, massaging her temples for a moment before choosing a second baby to diaper.
Within two minutes, all sixteen babies were diapered and ready to go. Tami, Anna, Cruz, and Abigail cleared the babies from the circular platform while Chela sat at the console and accessed its controls, changing its priority from appearification to sendification.
Seven of the eight screens went dark. The first screen remained on, but it had changed from a view of teenaged Chela in 1940s Puerto Rico to the desolate gray rock of an asteroid in the Veil.
Under Chela's instruction, her baby self was placed on the circular pad. The sendificator hummed for a moment, and baby Chela vanished in a brief flash of light, immediately reappearing on the asteroid shown in the first screen, confused and curious. Adult Chela entered a new command and the view changed to a different asteroid.
One by one, the remaining fifteen babies were sent to their respective asteroids.
As Anna watched her baby self get zapped away to her asteroid, she was struck suddenly with a vision: a massive frog statue, squatting atop a pyramidal stone temple erected in a lonely valley of gray rock, somewhere on a nearby asteroid in the Veil. Inside, Tami and Cruz stood in front of two transportalizer pads – one yellow, one violet. As they moved toward the yellow pad, Anna was struck by a vision of Prospit in flames-
"You alright?" asked Tami, shattering the vision and snapping Anna back into the present moment.
"I, uh…" Anna blinked. "Yeah, um. Seer of Time stuff, and-"
"Timey wimey Doctor Who shit?" Tami prodded. "What did you see?"
"I think we need to go to Prospit."
"What are you two talking about?" Cruz asked, returning from placing Baby Theo on the circular pad. "C'mon, include me in your schemes."
"Fuck off," grunted Tami.
Baby Theo disappeared in a flash of light.
"Hey-"
"We need to go to Prospit," Anna interrupted Cruz before another argument could ensue. "Hey, uh… Ms. Arevalo? There's a frog temple on one of these asteroids, right? Can you sendificate us there?"
Chela gave Anna a questioning glance. "Yes, and I could, but... Is something wrong?"
"I just saw Prospit on fire," said Anna. "The vision was very clear. If it isn't happening already, it will be soon."
Precious little could be heard over the deafening roar of unhealthily close artillery.
From his vantage point on the roof of a partially destroyed apartment complex, the Wrathful Veteran could only watch helplessly through binoculars as his fighters struggled to stay alive on the road below. They clutched their rifles and huddled for their lives behind hastily erected barricades made from wrecked vehicles and pieces of debris.
Millions of deadly bolts of energy swarmed angrily around the entrenched fighters like horizontal rainfall, slowly chipping away at the meager fortifications. Occasionally a dissenter broke cover to return fire, but only the lucky ones managed to hunker back down with an intact head still attached to their shoulders.
Several blocks down the road, less than a mile distant, several hundred of the Black Queen's commandos slowly advanced toward the dissenters' lines, mauling the Veteran's fighters mercilessly with the withering storm of suppressing fire. The well-trained soldiers staggered their advance – some squads provided suppressing fire while other squads moved up, and then they switched, patiently moving from cover to cover, utilizing the debris.
This was the fourth attempt from Queen's trained dogs to break through the Veteran's position, and they had learned hard lessons from the previous three.
Exhaustion settled deep behind the Wrathful Veteran's eyes as he surveyed the carnage.
Bodies heaped upon bodies. Innumerable dead strewn across the bloodsoaked road below, many shredded to pieces by the sheer number of times they had been hit. Some of the fallen were still intact enough for the Veteran to recognize scraps of tattered clothing and black uniforms. Dissenters and commandos alike, grotesquely united in death.
Streams of blood meandered gently through the slight gaps between cobblestones, dripping into the hundreds of craters and pockmarks marring the death-choked road.
The exhaustion spread from behind the Veteran's eyes to the center of his chest.
Once again, the Obsidian Moon was awash in Dersite blood, and once again the Queen would move on from today's events without even the slightest blemish upon body or conscience.
If justice was real, it did not seem to exist beyond the confines of the Veteran's imagination.
"Sir?"
The Veteran lowered his binoculars, blinking for a moment as he regained his bearings.
"Sir, did you hear me?" the same voice asked from behind.
"I did not, Burnless." The Veteran turned around, finding himself face to face with one of his best runners. "Would you repeat yourself?"
A stray energy bolt sizzled past the Veteran's head, close enough to feel the heat.
"The Regulator sent me," Burnless said, doing his best not to react to the Veteran's close brush with eternity. "Our radio is down, our rifles are running low on charge, and we are nearly out of power cells. The Regulator says the west flank will not survive the hour. He recommends a tactical withdrawal."
Stabs of irritation coursed through the Veteran's chest. "Under no circumstances can he withdraw."
"He won't like that."
"Tell him I'll make sure the Queen receives his complaint."
Before Burnless could reply, a sudden jarring silence descended over the battlefield. The shooting had stopped.
In a flash, the Veteran returned his binoculars to his eyes and studied the commandos' advance.
The commandos had stopped dead in their tracks, taking cover and holding their positions.
The dissenters were too grateful for the reprieve to even return fire. The Wrathful Veteran was too stunned to give such an order, for at that moment he spotted an impossible figure emerging from behind enemy lines.
Already cries of "The Sylph!" and "The Sylph lives!" were spreading through the entrenched dissenters' ranks.
"Tell the Regulator to get himself over here," the Veteran ordered Burnless. "He's going to want to see this."
After the last of the sixteen babies was sent to their asteroids, Anna, Cruz, and Tami exchanged farewells with Abigail and Chela.
"Will I see you again?" Cruz asked his grandmother as they hugged.
Chela smiled. "Yes."
"Nice meeting you, Adam's sister," said Tami, joining Anna on the circular platform. "Thanks for telling me I'm pretty."
Abigail frowned. "I'm not sure I ever-"
"You did," cut in Tami. "Indirectly, I guess. When you were about to blow the wall outside, you said…eh, never mind. You're awesome."
"Keep making music," said Abigail, moving aside to let Cruz step past her and onto the circular platform. "You've got serious moxie."
Anna broke out laughing. "Moxie?" she giggled. "Tam's got the mox."
Chela sat down at the console, entering in a quick series of commands. Before firing the sendificator, she stopped and looked at the three teens one last time. "Be careful out there. Good luck. We'll see each other again."
Abigail raised a hand in farewell. It was the last thing Cruz, Anna, and Tami saw before the sendificator hummed and the ectobiology lab melted away into white light.
Anna felt her consciousness get flushed down a toilet and spat out the other end, holding her queasy stomach after her body rematerialized and the light subsided.
"Never gets old," Tami muttered, looking a little nauseous herself. "Star Trek makes it look so easy. Bones was the only sane one."
"Bones?" Anna didn't watch Star Trek.
"McCoy," Tami clarified. When Anna's face remained blank, she gave up. "Never mind. Fuck teleportation. The end."
The trio had materialized at the base of the Frog Temple. Stone steps were carved into the front of the temple, reaching all the way up to the top. Tami, Cruz, and Anna started their climb. Within minutes they reached the top, breathless and sweaty, taking a moment to enjoy the view from the top of the temple. There wasn't much to enjoy beyond gray rock, gray valleys, gray mountains, and more gray rock, however, so they did not linger long before proceeding to the temple interior.
In the middle of the room was a giant lotus, mounted atop a square pedestal with dormant countdown timers lining the four sides. The lotus was open, waiting for someone or something to enter. Behind the lotus, against the wall on the far side of the room, was another flight of stone steps descending deeper into the temple interior.
"Hello again, random flower time capsule thing," Tami greeted the mounted lotus. "Long time no see. Hey, didn't Gino get his game discs from this thing?"
"Huh?" Cruz didn't quite remember.
"Yeah, when we were all smoking weed up here the weekend before the apocalypse," Tami continued. "The lotus opened, and Gino's Sburb discs were inside. That's how he was able to play the game."
"You were chilling and toking that weekend, and didn't invite me?" pouted Anna.
"Anna, c'mon." Tami rolled her eyes. "You were a sloshy drunken mess back then and you never answered your messages."
"Fair enough."
"Back then…" murmured Cruz. "Feels like all that stuff happened in another life. You realize it's only been a month or so? Since we came here? Feels like we've been here for years-"
Cruz was interrupted by the sound of footsteps ascending the stone stairs leading deeper into the temple.
"Who's there?" Tami called out, edging slowly around the lotus time capsule toward the stairs, retrieving a compound bow from her strife specibus and nocking an arrow. "I'm not fucking around! Who's there?!"
"Ahh, shit," Anna swore as a second, completely identical Anna emerged from below. "One sec, I gotta take this. Nobody say a word!"
Tami lowered her bow, about ready to explode. "What the actual fuck-?"
"Tam! Shh!" Anna mimed zipping her lips. She hurried over to Doppelganger Anna, who waited silently and patiently at the top of the stairs. Doppelganger Anna whispered into Anna's ear, too soft for Tami or Cruz to hear.
After a few seconds, Anna glanced back at Tami, smiling briefly one last time before closing her eyes and vanishing, leaving Tami and Cruz alone with Doppelganger Anna, who grinned sheepishly. "Sorry if that was jarring," she said.
"Fuck." Tami had reached her limit. "Where the fuck-?"
"She just hopped an hour back in time," Anna finished for her. "She has errands to run on Derse before she can become me and have this conversation with you."
Cruz blinked, frowned, blinked again. "How…?"
"Stable time loop, Cruz, we've already gone over this," Anna said, approaching Tami. "Stable time loop."
"But-"
"Tam." Anna surprised Tami by taking her hand. "You and Cruz need to go to Prospit. Downstairs you'll find a transportalizer that'll take you there. But I won't be going with you. There are a few things throughout the timeline I need to take care of. Adam's dream self should still be on the Golden Moon – he'll be able to help you if you wake him up. Listen," she continued before Tami could explode. "After the alcohol poisoning, the time we spent on the White Shadow up until now…it's the longest I've ever gone without time traveling. You helped me appreciate the present moment enough to pick one and stick with it. Adam's sister was right. You've got moxie."
Anna kissed Tami on the cheek. Then she hopped into the lotus, which glowed brightly as the petals began to close. When completely sealed, the lotus shrank down to a little green bud before vanishing altogether.
The countdown timers on the time capsule's pedestal flickered to life, displaying a countdown of four hundred thirteen million years.
"And you really suck at goodbyes," Tami spoke softly to the barren pedestal, touching her cheek.
Cass had never seen so much blood.
Many parts of the corpse-strewn road were completely submerged beneath gruesome puddles. Realizing she was staring at the bodies again, Cass blinked and forced herself to focus on what lay ahead. The dissenter fighters lowered their rifles, in awe as she walked past them, some even questioning if she was real.
One of the entrenched fighters emerged from behind a burnt car ruin, stepping out of cover to meet Cass. "Sylph," the dissenter acknowledged her, lowering his rifle. "How are you alive?"
"I need to speak with the Veteran," demanded Cass. "Now."
"But-"
"Now."
"Wait here," the Dersite fighter requested. He took his leave and sprinted further behind dissenter lines, disappearing down an alleyway.
Cass waited, jaws and fists clenched, fighting an uphill inner battle against succumbing to her roiling impatience and screaming. Nothing could slow her racing mind. Already she imagined the satisfaction of removing the Dignitary's head. He would bitterly regret cutting off her finger. Then his death, hopefully, would help lure the Black Queen out from the safety of her palace.
Hopefully.
Perhaps more would be needed. A spectacle, something explosive enough to capture the Queen's attention and wrath. Simply killing the Dignitary might not be enough.
An image of Adamsprite flashed through Cass's mind's eye.
Would the Black Queen's death be worth sacrificing a close friend?
Cass shook her head, forehead creased in a deep frown as she banished the thought. Victory at the cost of Adamsprite's life was a pile of ash. Not for the first time, she found herself wishing sprites had the ability to teleport.
Unless…
A new idea popped into Cass's mind: Adam. Non-sprite Adam. If she could contact Adam, then maybe-
Write it down!
From her sylladex Cass retrieved her iPhone and turned it on, holding it for the first time in weeks. After the screen came to life, she checked out of sheer habit to see there was any service.
Zero bars.
Not surprising. Cass hadn't expected any signal, but it would have been nice.
Taking no chances with the Dignitary's mic in her pocket, she made sure her phone was on silent. She then opened up a notebook app and started tapping away, hastily forming three rapidfire messages, each on its own page.
Perhaps Gwen was still with the Wrathful Veteran. If Cass could get the Veteran to pass her messages to Gwen…
"Sylph?"
Cass immediately recognized the Wrathful Veteran's voice. She finished composing her third and final message, scrolling back to the first before meeting the Veteran's gaze.
Taking a moment to enjoy making eye contact with someone who had life behind their eyes, Cass took a deep breath and announced, "I am here for your unconditional surrender." While she spoke, she showed the Veteran the screen of her phone, which displayed the first message: DD IS LISTENING. "I will convey your answer back to the Draconian Dignitary."
Cass scrolled to the second message: DO IT. SURRENDER. I HAVE A PLAN. SHOW NEXT MESSAGE TO GWEN.
The Veteran blinked, his expression softening upon reading Gwen's name. "Have you not heard? I-"
"Unconditional surrender," Cass interrupted forcefully, scrolling to her third and longest message, this time giving her phone to the Veteran. "There is no other way out for you. What should I tell the Dignitary?"
The Veteran quickly finished with the third message, taking a moment to process what he'd just read before stowing the iphone in a pocket. "Tell him we surrender."