Chapter Twenty-Nine: Gabriel
Fifty Years later sitting around a campfire Gabriel approached placing more wood to their fire and adding the wood to the flames before taking a seat across from Theresa.
"So? What happened after the Crawler was defeated? What happened to the heroes?" Gabriel asked.
"Well, the hero King of Brightwall would naturally lead his armies to war with Samarkand and its corrupted ruler the Empress, where he was captured," Theresa said to the curious Dweller.
"Guess the 'if a hero can't be found' part makes sense, they're all gone huh?" Gabriel asked seeing the seer shake her head.
"Well, they would be all gone, had the hero brother Logan didn't come to his aid," Theresa spoke recounting the events of the past.
"Logan? Wasn't he the former tyrant before the Hero of Brightwall lead a revolution against him?" Gabriel asked.
"He was indeed, I don't know what lead him, but Logan changed his fate, he gathered allies who aided him to fight the Corruption, and with the Queen's blessing they marched to Samarkand dethroned the Empress, and recused the King," Theresa explained.
"What happened to them? Adam and Logan, what became of them?" Gabriel asked curious to know the brother's fate.
"They would marry, have many children and grandchildren, and would both pass away in their old age, unfortunately, their current bloodlines, their legacies haven't produced any with the spark others had before them," Theresa spoke having considered one of Adam grandchildren to be the hero she needed to fight the Corrupter.
"That's unfortunate," Gabriel spoke sarcastically, "guess that means the great hero bloodline truly is gone then?"
"Perhaps not, you're here, not many would have done what you did," Theresa said seeing the potential in Gabriel.
"So, what now? The Devourer and Temptress are both defeated, what will happen when we fight the Corrupter?" Gabriel asked.
"My powers are weakened so I don't know what the future holds, perhaps with the new age new heroes will rise, what I can see are blurs, faint whispers, but strangely enough one of those whispers sounds like you," Theresa spoke hearing the faint whispers of an older Gabriel speaking to her.
"My voice? What am I whispering?" Gabriel asked watching Theresa listen.
'I'll take it from here, Theresa,' the whisper spoke to Theresa who smiled softly.
"I'll tell you after we reach the spire, come," Theresa spoke standing up and heading to the cart.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming," Gabriel spoke standing up and getting ready to mount Seren to the cart.
On the road, the two looked out to the distance where the Corruption spun around the sky above the Spire.
"So, I guess all the heroes of Fables truly are gone huh?" Gabriel spoke looking to the road ahead.
"For now," Theresa spoke getting the Dweller's attention.
"What do you mean for now?" Gabriel asked glancing over to his blind companion.
"While the damage done to my soul by the Devour is deep, I can still see small fragments of a possible future if we succeed in defeating the Corrupter, to be truthful the fragments are blurry, some vague, but I am certain what I see is the return of heroes, in an age when heroes will be needed the most," Theresa spoke.
"Isn't that time now?" Gabriel replied given their current journey.
"Why would we when we have you, Gabriel," Theresa spoke.
Smiling Gabriel looked ahead, what would this journey take him? If he were to be the hero Theresa spoke of, would he make the sacrifices needed to save many? Would he still hold onto his beliefs? So many unanswered questions lay ahead on this Journey.
Two days later Gabriel coughed, crawling his way onto the beach having swam out of the ocean, looking back to the now destroyed spire. He now understood what Theresa had done.
She did more than pave Gabriel's path to be a hero, she was tasking him as their world caretaker, its new seer, to ensure things were to go as they should, to point heroes in the direction they must go.
Laying in the wet sand to catch his breath Gabriel pushed himself up getting to his feet to look around and decided what to do next, didn't help his head was throbbing and his eyes were still burning.
Picking up Theresa's blindfold Gabriel blinked a few times his vision was truly gone, the Heart of the Spire now beats inside his chest but also showed him the threads of time, he could see them all creating a clear picture of the beach.
This was how Theresa explored the world, the threads of time allowed Gabriel to now see in a way no others could not, stumbling forward he felt the threads create an image of the past.
During the destruction of the Spire, it crossed paths with something from another world. No dimension. Something had arrived in their world; Gabriel could sense it but could not grasp what it was just yet.
Putting on the blindfold over his eyes Gabriel looked around smiling when Seren came running down the beach to him.
"Whoa, girl! Steady! Did you come back just for me? Aw you good girl you," Gabriel smiled petting her mane.
The Void had been left open long enough for something else to slither out into their world Gabriel could sense it, something that will remain hidden, waiting for its time to strike, something Nightmarish.
Taking a breath Gabriel could feel it, it was no accident he was to be the new seer his powers manifested themselves at the Prism, allowing him to go where he needed to be, climbing onto Seren back Gabriel road on Seren down the beach shore.
The path was clear, Gabriel now had to wait, to listen, to watch. Watch over Albion and wait for the return of heroes, the visions of the future were clear, he saw many faces, many possibilities, and saw what needed to be done.
Gasping Gabriel felt a rush of lost memories floods his mind, an older version of himself, from a time that was now lost going back in time creating memories with the heroes fifty years ago.
Smiling Gabriel could see that his final task had reached the heroes of the past, each of them did as instructed in the letters he had left behind before vanishing from that timeline to be reborn in this new rewritten one.
He could now see the ones he foresaw more clearly now, heroes that would be gathered together when the time was right.
Though he knew it would be many many before he would set these heroes on their path, five hundred years to be exact. That was a long time to wait, but Gabriel could see where he needed to go next.
He was going to get stronger, we would train both with him, body and powers for the future, first thing first, he needed a sword and was going to need a place to train in solitude.
Meanwhile, on Clockwork Island Huxley was walking down the beach bending over to pick up a piece of wood board, "garbage!" he spoke placing it in a bag at his side then looked up tilting his head to see a strange pod washed up on shore.
Approaching Huxley looked down at the clear glass covered in frost to see inside was a soldier in strange armor, looking ahead Huxley noticed three weapons that had also washed up with the weapon picking up the strange sword that was split in the middle.
"Collin, please aid me at the north side beach," Huxley spoke via a radio where he waited for his robot counterpart to join him, both looking at the strange pod.
Scanning the pod Collin's eye used a scanner that went from the top of the strange pod to the bottom, "it would appear this pod has a human inside. His vitals appear normal, the young man appears to have been placed in a hibernating state."
"I've never seen such technology like this, or weapons like these," Huxley spoke picking up a strange rifle.
"We must bring him to the lab, the pod is using a built-in generator but it is limited we can not let it shut off and risk this man's death," Collin spoke watching Huxley place the weapons into his garbage bag then took one end of the pod both robots lifting and carrying the pod towards Faraday Industries.
Inside the lab, the robots placed the pod on a table where they began to attach plugs and wires looking to a screen where information began to scroll across the screen.
"Interesting," a voice spoke as a red light scanned the pod, "I have never seen such technology like this before, how do you suppose our friend got here."
"Perhaps he came from space," Huxley suggested getting his arm smacked by Collin.
"Don't be obsolete, space travel is impossible," Collin spoke getting punched back.
"Enough, no fighting in the lab please," the voice spoke making the robots stop their bickering.
"Sorry," Collin and Huxley spoke watching the red light stop scanning the pod.
"This is gonna need very thorough study, I suspect that this stranger will be needed someday, but for now the technology of his pod could better our own technology, let us begin."
Meanwhile in Bowerstone in the Cemetery mansion, the doors were pushed open as Lady Grey strolled through clad in black, her heels clicking on the floorboard making a disgusted look at the state the mansion was left in.
"How revolting, this brings back so many unpleasant memories of that miserable little man," Lady Grey spoke turning to Reaver who walked in wearing white and swinging a cane a servant behind him carrying a large bag on his back.
"My dear lady, are you sure the lab is even operational? I hate to have wasted digging up these putrid remains to get no results," Reaver spoke following Lady Grey to the basement where the dust and spiderweb-covered lab remained.
"I should rip out the guts of the new grave keeper for letting this place go to the dogs," Lady Grey spoke approaching the workbench.
"It's all here, shall we bring our old friend back to life here?" Lady Grey asked seeing Reaver drag a finder across a dust cover lab equipment.
"No, I don't think we shall do that, this lab is too small and possibly too dangerous to bring this chap back," Reaver spoke rubbing the dust on the shirt of his servant and snapped his fingers having several large bodyguards enter the room, "gather every last piece of equipment, documents, hell bring the lighting for all I care, I want all this back in Reaver Industries."
Doing as ordered Reaver and Lady Grey returned upstairs, "Speaking of your factories, how is my request coming along?"
"Spectacular my dear lady, the experiments were a success, they are ready to follow your orders if you managed to keep up with training those new powers of yours," Reaver spoke watching Lady Grey lift a hand and create red sparks around her fingertips.
"Those bloody fools excused me of being a witch when they had me executed, they were right, my training was nearly done when they kicked my doors open, I would have had that meddling heroic fools suffering at my feet! However, taking revenge on their descendants will satisfy my need for revenge," Lady Grey spoke with her eyes glowing red.
"My I wouldn't want to get in your way for revenge my dear, by all means, destroy every last one of them, I think it will make things more interesting around Albion," Reaver spoke glancing back at her servant and to the bag with the remains inside, "why do you think ole Wrathful Vex choose him?"
"Who said it was Vex's choosing?" Lady Grey spoke pulling out an umbrella as it began to rain and opening it over her head, "he serves an even higher power that's pulling the old puppeteer strings."
"I must confess I know little to nothing about this old chap, was he as strong as Vex claims?" Reaver asked seeing Lady Grey chuckle.
"I never personally met the man, however, it is due to him that you have your empire in Bloodstone, he once held the title of strongest of all the heroes before he fell from glory, I suspect he may retain some of that heroic stubbornness if we bring him back, best to get your scientist to work on a way to submit the brute to our wills," Lady Grey spoke picking up rose from a grave the rose wilting under her touch as if she was sucking out it life force.
"Best to get to work now, Vex's given us some time to prepare for his return and he plans to bring many guests with him, a family reunion from the sounds of it," Reaver spoke walking with Lady Grey out of the cemetery.
A.N. Nearly there for the end