10-Fifty Years Later
Chaos' square ship streaked toward the Earth at unimaginable speed. The war had taken much less time then he had thought it would, because the Rebellion was in fact just one organization plotting the downfall of the government; when the attack began, members of those other organizations pitched in and later informed their superiors, who joined forces with the Rebellion to make a force the likes of which the government had never seen.
But Chaos wasn't thinking about this. He was thinking about seeing Libertor again, and continuing to help the Echidnas build their civilization.
As he his the atmosphere, he began steering it toward Detwelf in northern South America. Unlike his previous visit, he was now in a ship he could control, although how he even got into it we may never know, because it was a square lump of solid crystal.
About twenty feet from the ground, he began slowing down so that he hit the ground at a minuscule two miles per hour. As he got out (again, don't ask me how), he looked around, the first thing he noticed were gardens. A few had flowers, more had foods, but most had strange gray things he could only assume had some sort of culinary or medicinal use. Strange gardens these were, too, with grass growing all around the gray things. He wondered if they had some symbiotic relationship that made it necessary to grow grass near them, and decided to ask later.
As he looked at the people, he realized something was wrong. The Echidnas were looking at him strangely, as if trying to decide if they were glad or furious. Their fists were clenched, and they were tense, as if readying themselves. The face of one woman caught his eye. She had a line of pale flesh running across her cheek, easily distinguishable from the rest of her skin. As he tried to decide what it was, he remembered something similar developing to one of the Echidnas in America when he had been grazed by a bullet. A scar, he had called it. Then it clicked in his mind.
These people were battle-hardened.
A quick look around confirmed it; all of them, even the children (whom the adults were stepping in front of), carried daggers in a sash on their belt or leg. To make sure, he swung his arm in an unnatural direction, as if to attack. Every one of them struck a battle pose, some even unsheathing their weapons. When it became clear he was not attacking anyone, they put down their guards and sheathed their daggers.
Finally, Chaos reached his destination, which was the building that had been both office and home for Libertor. It was guarded by Echidnas with...
He did a double take. The Echidnas guarding the door were holding primitive and clearly homemade guns, but they were still guns. They could do nothing to harm him, of course, but if the Echidnas had resorted to guns...
He walked up to the door and knocked. The guards seemed to realize shooting him would just be a waste of bullets, and tackled him instead. He tried to push them off without hurting them, which was hard because each had a death grip on one of his arms. The door opened, and an Echidna stepped out, though it wasn't Libertor.
"Let him go," the Echidna said. "Come inside, Chaos."
He obeyed, and the Echidna closed the door.
"I'd offer you a drink, but we really need all we can get, and from what I've heard of you, you don't need to drink."
Chaos shook his head. He knew he had to ask the question, but he couldn't get the words to form.
"My father spoke very highly of you."
"Your father?"
"Libertor."
"Can we see him?"
The Echidna, whose resemblance to his father was now so obvious Chaos couldn't believe he'd missed it, hesitated, then said, "Very well."
But instead of taking Chaos to another building, Libertor's son took him to one of the strange gardens. He saw a few others in them; they were staring solemnly at the plants, or else holding their head in their hands.
The Echidna led him to a plant larger than the others. Close-up, it looked like it was made of stone. Chaos expected to keep going, but his companion stopped at the large plant, staring at its face. Chaos looked at it, too, and saw that it was engraved:
R.I.P.
Libertor
Our leader, our hero, our friend.
Chaos wondered what this was all about when it occurred to him that the Echidnas were semisolid creatures. Their bodies would not just disappear when they died. They had to go somewhere.
"R.I.P.?" asked Chaos.
"Rest in peace."
Chaos turned to him, overwhelmed by sadness. "What's your name?"
"Marduk," he said.
"Marduk, what happened here?"
"Greed."