Chapter 2

Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™.

"So, please, don't hesitate to update me your information: where is Daphne?" James Lester's voice lacked some of its bite, perhaps due to his own wound, but still.

"Abby? She appears to be gone," Matt said hollowly, trying to his best to avoid looking at Jess, who upon hearing the news turned paler than when she was suffering from a beetle's bite. "April may know more, but right now, she got her own problems to take care of."

"Ah, yes. Broken bones and torn ligaments in her legs, and her hips aren't doing all that well either," Lester agreed evenly. "Fascinating. With pain blockers and I know not what she has been given, she will be out like a light for days, and barely in a condition to talk afterwards either. Wonderful."

"Sir?"

"Don't sir me," Lester exhaled slowly. "This isn't the first loss I had seen in the field team: Cutter died, Lewis up and left, Page died, Quinn is also gone...I really should've gotten used to it, I suppose. But, somehow, Shaggy, you and Daphne had always managed to pull through, the two of you, you know? Seeing only one of you is like seeing a single piece out of a double-set, and believe me, after listening to Becker's hysterics after Page died, I know what I'm talking about."

"Sir, Mr. Lester, I'm sorry-"

"For what?" Lester said flatly. "For losing a comrade-in-arms during the line of duty? Do not. You failed and there is no going back."

"Lester-"

"Don't," Lester shook his head, as Jess stared at him in something approaching a mix of fear and respect – but then, she did see him take out a chronologically displaced arboreal dinosaur and stand-up to a pair of future predators, so a certain change in perspective was in order. "Not now. Just grin and bear on, or something. Or leave, as Lewis did, as Quinn did. The turnover rate at the ARC is quite high, and you probably were here the longest as it was – besides me, of course."

"...Okay," Connor said quickly, seeing how Lester was about to rant. "Is there anything else-?"

"It's stupid, you know, for I know what Helen was capable of, but seeing how you told me that all that you saw was a video recording of her – could it be faked? With that CGI of yours or something?"

There was a pause, as Connor nodded, startled a bit. "Yes, but that's academic, isn't it? We stopped "New Dawn", Philip is gone, the manifested time anomalies are gone-"

"Perhaps, but I have," Lester shook his head, as a time anomaly alarm began to sound in the ARC. "Never mind. Go and deal with this situation instead, would you?"

Feeling rather chastised the remains of the ARC field team just up and left.

\\\

The future...

A world, where landed formed high, steep, cragged mountain ridges. Volcanoes, which spew fire and ash into the sky and drench the rocks with magma. Seas with their sharply sloping floors where unmistakable horrors dwell. And, finally, caverns, where the remainders of civilization –or civilizations – dwell.

Boom, boom, boom!

The war drums of Vigdis' tribe were echoing all across the cavern complex as fires brought illumination into its' depths away from the opening.

Boom, boom, boom!

As the fires crackled on coal and bone, they brought out the shadows of Vigdis' tribe – misshape silhouettes, belonging to one of the more powerful band of mutants in this part of the world. Shaped vaguely human, they spotted overt features that showed their difference from the pure humanity: skin too pale or eyes and ears too large, features that were draconic rather than human, bodies that looked more like bipedal rats or bears or even humanoid snakes.

Boom!

"My people!" Vigdis – almost five meters tall, over two tons in weight, purple-skinned, double-headed – roars towards her tribe. "For many a year we suffered as the so-called pure blooded humans lived in luxury in their so-called remains, but no more! At last, a glimmer of hope has come this way and soon, we will see the sun! We will walk where we could not! We will rule where humans once rule! My people, we are going to change the past, the present, and the future!"

"Vigdis."

The new speaker is far smaller and far quieter than Vigdis – a pure blood human, through and through. Vigdis easily dwarfs her, but the human – her eyes as cold and humane as a wind in November – shows no fear nor intimidation, and blades that she wields as sharp.

"Vigdis. Where are the prisoners?"

"Here, old genii," Vigdis chortles through one of her mouths, as one of her hands indicates towards several figures bound next to one of fires: they are reptilian, inhuman, but they are not Vigdis' tribe.

They are Anathema.

"What are you going to do now?" Vigdis continues to chortle, but the 'genii' ignores her, facing the prisoners instead.

"Caro, I'm sorry to see you like this, but," she turn back and faces Vigdis face to faces, "but, Vigdis, as your daughter had told me, the only way to stop you is to kill you, you inflated balloon of pride and greed. So, one last time I'm giving you a chance to use that spinal column of yours for thinking and submit."

All four of Vigdis' eyes narrow in anger. "Is that a challenge?"

"It's an offer, you double-headed halfwit," the 'genii' sneers. "Seriously, do you have a brain at all? Your daughter may be half the thing you are, but even she's smarter than you!"

Vigdis strikes.

Her opponent parries.

And April Leonard is released from the nightmares of her past.

End chapter 2