Chapter 13.
It was scary, how normal the house seemed. I half-expected Shyla to come out of the kitchen as I opened the door and looked up the stairs of the split-level. But it was too quiet and nobody was coming to greet the visitor. My feet moved, one in front of the other up the steps to the landing. Dark brown stains skidded from the landing into the kitchen. I looked inside for a moment, blinking at the bodies of Shyla and Emma. A knife lay nearby in their blood.
The living room was next. I couldn't ignore the tell-tale signs of a struggle, broken glass and stains on carpet, walls and furniture. I'd turned into a silent observer, eyeing the scene through the training I'd received, knowing one mark was from a victim and another from the murderer. Fintan was draped over the loveseat like an abandoned rag doll. His open eyes were staring at the ground where Lydia lay. They were both dead.
Dead, I repeated in my head numbly.
Years later, many, many years later, I would remember how apathetically Fintan looked at the bodies of his younger self and his mother in that moment.
I'd been sitting there for only a couple moments, shocked into silent shaking, when they had arrived. Fintan and a superhero-suited young woman appeared in the darkened living room in an oval of bright light that faded away after they stepped forth. The young woman gasped, kneeling next to the body of Lydia with a frown. Her red eyes examined the corpses and then turned on Fintan, teary and radiant.
Emma, I named her in my mind, my little sister-in-law who lay lifeless in the kitchen currently. My body wouldn't move, but I stared at the pair with vague curiosity, wondering why they'd only come now. So much for the 'gift' of time-traveling.
"Well don't just sit there," Fintan offered me and put his hand on my shoulder. His voice softened a bit as he examined my current state, "We need to take care of this…and we can't do it without you. If you want to see them again, come with us."
My legs managed to move somehow and I stood shakily, feeling as if someone might knock me over with a sneeze. My head pounded, so loudly that I barely caught the whispered consultation between the suit-clad Fintan and spandex-constrained Emma. They both looked at me, seeming to expect more than I was currently giving, but I couldn't help it. I'd lost everything and even if Fintan could somehow help…wouldn't I always remember the way Lydia's blood had felt on my hands? My eyes blurred and I realized I was crying- had been crying.
I never cry, I reminded my disobedient tear ducts.
"Come on Warren," Emma offered gently and put a hand on my elbow, guiding me forward as another oval of light appeared. "Let's go save 'em."
We stepped into the light, and I unblinking stood until our feet were planted on solid ground again- far away from the horror scene we'd come from. I looked around, recognizing Sky High, even in its changed state. New buildings had been added to the floating campus and different banners hung from the front entrance. The place was deserted and I turned slowly, shivering as the wind picked up, whipping through me.
"You might remember," Fintan began slowly, almost as if talking to a child, "That Medulla had told you the Mortis Angelus was a work of genius, like something out of the future." He turned and took off his sunglasses, staring at me with his mother's eyes, "He was right- because the Mortis Angelus was from the future." He folded the sunglasses and stuck them in his pocket, frowning.
"Where are we?" I asked hoarsely, leaning on Emma for support.
"The Sky High campus, the year 2017," Emma answered and then looked at the ground at a chastising glance from Fintan. I wondered if she was his sidekick, he didn't seem like a team-work sort of person…probably had gotten that from me.
"This is the year a breakthrough is made in ray technology- especially in the experimentation using rays and time-travel. In essence that's what the Mortis Angelus does, it ages the organs instantly- killing the person through the influence of time. It wasn't a weapon ever meant to be created, but the mad ramblings of a prisoner from your time were written down by Secondhand when he shared a cell with the man and when the power-loss drugs that are given to prisoners wore off at a faster rate than expected, Secondhand traveled here with the plans, giving them to someone who had enough of a brain to create what had been dreamt about."
I didn't want to hear this from Fintan, didn't want to listen to him expound on how craftily Secondhand had created his web for his victims. All I could think about was my family, once lost and then lost again and the blood on my hands, drying dark in the crevices.
"What do I need to do?" I asked, standing straighter, "Just tell me that."
Fintan met my eyes again, "This is the day Secondhand comes here to give Medulla the plans for the Mortis Angelus. You stop him, that's what you need to do."
I wondered how I'd ever raised a man like this, so certain of himself, manipulating me as if I was some pawn on a chess board. Was he doing this because he loved Lydia like I did? Or was he just making sure that he didn't die prematurely?
"I love her too," Fintan offered, steady gaze breaking for a brief moment as he said the words. His voice was quiet and I wondered how he'd seen through me so clearly. "But this is something we all have to do together…I know. So trust me."
I shook my head slightly and closed my eyes, swallowing with some effort. "Will this happen again?" I asked sounding like a child, "Will…I have to see—to see…"
"It'll never happen again," Fintan answered certainly.
"Come on," Emma offered to both of us and stepped towards the building, "Let's go."
We nodded in unison, set our jaws the same way, clenched our fists at the same time and turned to follow her. Too quickly we were inside, walking through the changed halls of this future Sky High towards the new lab where Medulla still worked. I wondered why Medulla would do such a thing and what he'd think if he knew. For him it was just another scientific discovery or experiment. I tried not to hate him for it.
We stopped outside a set of doors, voices coming from within. I tensed at the sound of Secondhand's voice, clear and persuasive as he made his case to Medulla. How long had he cultivated the relationship with Medulla, I wondered. Even if my experience with time travel was less than the other two I was accompanying, I knew from Lydia that there were many shortcuts one could take to set up a future conversation. It would have been simple to 'bump into' Medulla at some conference and start up a 'friendship' from there.
Emma was taking something out of the bag she'd been carrying around, they looked like small, portable speakers as she set three on the ground and began spacing them along the outside wall of the classroom. Fintan gave her a sign to do the job more quietly and she nodded, stealthily walking back to us once all three devices had been switched on. I watched them warily, a faint buzzing sounding in my ears. Soon they began glowing white like power-draining material and the buzzing grew louder. Inside the room, the talking ceased.
"He can still time-jump a few seconds back or forward- so be careful," Fintan offered hurriedly, hand on the door, "And try not to hurt Medulla- he's helpful."
The energy that had been lost was suddenly flooding my body as Fintan pushed the door open and rushed in, Emma close behind. There was a burning sensation in my fingertips, but it wavered like a flame struggling not to go out. I had no firepower but I still hurried after and joined the fray.
A much older Medulla watched in shock as we rushed in. Emma immediately performed some kind of spinning kick I couldn't dream of accomplishing and knocked Secondhand to the ground. He lay for a moment, maybe expecting to be able to use his powers to escape. His expression grew more frustrated and he bolted to the other side of the room as Fintan ran at him.
"You," he sneered, eyeing his redhead grand-nephew with contempt. His eyes darted to the unfinished Mortis Angelus on the lab counter in front of him.
I saw the glance and lunged towards the weapon, knocking it off the table and onto the ground. It slid across the slick linoleum and towards the feet of Mr. Medulla. In the corner of my eye I saw Fintan and Secondhand suddenly wrestling but there was no time to help. The elderly Medulla was moving as fast as he could towards the partially completed death ray. He bent over as I jumped over a lab counter, toppling benches over in my effort to beat him to the weapon. Emma hurried forward as well, but was farther away and I knew it was up to me.
My head scraped against the counter top as I toppled over another row and slid towards the weapon as Medulla bent over to pick it up, his old back making the process slower. My hand closed around the handle and I looked up at Medulla. His wrinkled face lit with recognition and he paused long enough for me to grab the Mortis Angelus. The feeling of it was lighter than I remembered and I reminded myself that this was not yet the weapon that had killed Knight and Chrono.
"Warren?" Medulla asked, fear replaced by curiosity as I got up with the weapon in my hand and pointed it quickly towards the grappling Fintan and Secondhand.
"Stop!" I yelled hoarsely, holding the weapon towards them.
Fintan wrestled Secondhand around, swinging him out and towards my aim before breaking away from the man with a quick time-jump of five seconds- the maximum he could complete under the influence of the power-draining transmitters we were using.
Secondhand froze, eyes widening as he realized who it was holding the weapon. This particular version of him hadn't yet met me in prison.
"I take it everything worked out then," he offered, expression turning smug, though his eyes still watched me warily through the frames of his glasses, "Why else would you all be here? Is my brother dead then? And Lydia I presume? Wonderful."
My finger caressed the trigger of the death ray.
"I'm glad- I did try rather hard to set things up this time. I knew it'd be much more satisfying to torture her and her father a little bit before letting them die. They had to feel my pain after all. Though," he glanced at Fintan, "I didn't think I'd see you again? What happened, was I that careless?"
"My child self is still alive…barely," Fintan replied coldly, "I have enough time to take care of you before death comes and affects my future."
I stared at Fintan, brow furrowing, he'd been alive? Then was Emma alive too? I'd thought my son was dead, as dead as his mother…did that mean Lydia was still alive, still there in that living room? I dropped my arm, the Mortis Angelus hanging loosely in my grasp. He'd dragged me into the future when she might still be alive? I stared at Fintan angrily but didn't have a chance to say anything.
There was a sound in the hall and the buzzing ceased.
Secondhand smiled and gave me a wink before-
I raised the Mortis Angelus and fired. The black beam hit Secondhand in the stomach a millisecond before he disappeared.
Medulla stared at all of us, taking in the scene with the keen observation of a scientist.
Fintan fell to his knees on the ground, looking suddenly pale. "He got away," he growled.
"The transmitters are out," Emma said, coming back into the room after a quick check in the hallway, "They were blown by the strain, seems Secondhand has more power than we thought."
"Was," Fintan offered with finality, clutching his head, "Warren fired the Mortis Angelus…he'll die…he…has-" Fintan fell over, gasping for breath before he suddenly disappeared.
"What happened?" I asked, dropping the unfinished weapon to the floor. I stomped on it angrily, shattering the casing and mechanisms inside easily.
Emma held her own head with a grimace, "I think he died…back in your time. I have to hurry- send you back before," she hacked and blood spattered from her mouth onto the formerly clean desk she stood next to.
I hurried over, a frown on my face.
"Don't make that again- alright?" she said to Medulla faintly and grasped my wrist. A red hole appeared in the floor beneath us and we sunk through, dropping at inexpressible speed.
Dizzily I looked over, Emma had gone. Vanished like Fintan and I was falling, falling, falling…There seemed to be no end to the nauseating sensation. Had we succeeded? Was Secondhand dead?
And as my falling slowed and the world appeared again around me, the most important question came to my muddled brain.
Was Lydia alive?