This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays kings, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Earth
12,457,983 A.D.
Many in this world strive for immortality. Their minds chase after the illusive goal of eternal life, hoping to add even one more minute to their life.
One more second of cheating the reaper.
One last microsecond of gasping for breath before death plucks this life.
From the dawn of time, man has striven for the miracle only to be denied their prize as Death would claim them in the end.
It was an inevitable fact of life that everyone knows but refuses to talk about: In the end, Death always wins.
The wind swirled, sand rising to the sky as a lone figure and his horse appeared from the dust.
He was wearing an old black cloak that covered his skull, a wooden scythe in one hand, the reigns to his gray horse in the other.
The horse, a pale, sickly creature that neighed at the empty world.
Death stared out over this empty and forgotten world that had long since been abandoned. The towering skyscrapers that at one point had risen to the heavens and proclaimed man's greatness were now reduced to rusted heaps of scrap and dust.
The Grim Reaper smiled at the wasteland of empty sand that swirled in the cold, biting wind, the teeth grating eerily in the silence.
The Reaper marveled at its work as it walked through this world as long ago it had killed all life on this planet. In fact there was no reason for it to be-
The Reaper lost its balance as a lone human pushed through the personification of death without seeing a thing, Death's horse whinnying in annoyance before returning to Death's side.
The Reaper sighed as it realized why it was still here.
Ron.
Grim reached out a hand and touched Ron on the shoulder but the only response was Ron tucking his clothes around him tighter as the cold fingers brushed his skin.
With another sigh, Death turned and left as it realized Ron was a lost cause.
The Reaper put a final hand on Ron's shoulder, releasing him from the contract of Man.
The Creator looked down at this momentous occasion as for the first time in history, Death had been bested.
Death: Countless numbers throughout the ages.
Humanity: One.
The cold wind continued to blow as Ron and the Reaper parted ways for the final time.
In the end, even Death had forsaken Ron Stoppable.
Earth
17,987,425 A.D.
Fate had been to cruel when it had given him the curse of Immortality.
Time had no more relevance here, the only reason he counted the passing millenia was to keep his mind active.
Dates...he couldn't remember the last time he knew what day it was, let alone the time.
He had long since given up crying for the dead world and its people that had passed on, leaving him here like a forgotten caretaker.
Sand the color of blood and as cold as ice swirled around him as he continued his trek.
The cold and biting wind tugged at his skin and he clenched his teeth as the wind found gaps in his clothes and chilled him as he struggled on.
He placed a hand on the sand dune he was walking to the side of for balance and he stumbled along as the loose sand tumbled over the tops of his shoes and worked its way into the spaces between his toes.
Ron Stoppable was in hell.
Not the literal dimension of hell that one thinks of with demons, the devil or the lake of fire. Instead this was more of a custom, made to order hell. It was the kind of hell that was more ironic than anything.
It was a hell that would have been more in line with a Greek myth. The hell that the gods would carve out as punishment for one who had dared offend them. The only difference in this case was that Ron couldn't understand why he was being punished.
A man who for his entire life didn't mind being relegated to the back of the party, who was constantly forgotten or ignored, his lifestyle finally overtook him.
It seemed that even death had forgotten about Ron Stoppable and had decided to kill the Earth before killing him.
Ron knew he was in hell because he couldn't die. While dying or lack thereof wasn't contingent with hell, the complete separation from all things he knew…that was hell.
He stumbled along as the sands were blown about by the cold and biting wind and he winced as the rust of buildings long crumbled blew about in his face.
The feeling of cold steel on his skin made Ron gasp in shock but he quickly shrugged it off as he readjusted the Lotus Blade that was still strapped to his back.
He was nearing the edge of the dune and he paused just at the edge of the enormous mound of sand and looked beyond to where his goal lay.
Middleton.
Rather, what was left of Middleton. Millions of years of disrepair and no one to maintain the city and it had finally been retaken by nature. The lack of water had only served to preserve the material but now, the remains of the city, nay the entire human race, lay with Middleton. The only thing that distinguished Middleton from the desert of endless sand was the twins beams of solid steel that rose from the blood red if only several meters.
Even Ron couldn't understand how the twin beams of steel had lasted this long. Millions of years and still those twin beams stood tall even though they were slowly being consumed by time itself.
He watched the sand swirl around those beams for several minutes and struggled to remember how long ago it was that he'd seen that space scraper created.
"I think it was 2015?" he asked himself.
A cold wind filled the void.
"No, it was 2017," he corrected himself, "Kim and I went to the top for our tenth anniversary."
He pondered silently at what little remained of Middleton before he trudged through the blowing sand until he was at the base of the four meter columns. He pulled out his sword and tapped it lightly on the metal pylons and watched in grim sadness as the steel beam folded in on itself like a house of cards.
Ron sighed as the steel crumpled into dust and within seconds, the dust was blown away.
The last trace of Middleton was gone forever.
Humanity was finished.
Earth
25,987,354 A.D.
It amazed Ron as to how the mountains had been eroded until they were nothing but sand particles that blew endlessly in that infernal wind. Over millions of years all the mountains and hills of the world had been eroded until the world was nothing more than a massive desert world with endless miles of sand and dust that swirled in the cold wind.
He would have been in that wind, but after countless millennia of walking Ron had found a tiny hollow of rock that had not been eroded by the sand.
He heard the wind outside his shelter but thankfully the rock cavern he now called home was far enough from the outside that sand and wind were unable to reach him.
No matter how much the wind howled and the sands beat against his shelter, the rock refused to crack and so he now called this place home.
He hardly left this place anymore as he knew to leave would only serve as a stark reminder to his abandonment on this world.
He'd lost count of the times he had used the Lotus Blade as a radio to contact the Lowardians, but each time he tried to contact them, all he received in response was static.
He sometimes spent his time wondering morosely if they too had befallen the same fate of humanity.
Was he the last living thing in the universe?
Some days he lay in the bed he carved directly from the stone wall and he carved shapes into the rock, memories of adventures long ago with friends long since passed.
Some days he would arise and peek his head out of the cave entrance just to see if anything changed. He rarely did that anymore.
Most of his time he spent in meditation where his body covered itself in blue flame and he silently pondered his existence.
Rufus had told him to wait for Kim but when would she be here? Would she even show up?
Ron stopped his meditation for a moment as he thought back to Rufus' death and watched the memory play over as he was powerless to stop it.
Could he have done anything to stop it?
He didn't know the answer to that question as Rufus' transferring his power was still enough to drive Ron to tears.
Ron silently exited his meditation and opened his eyes as he watched the flames on his body flicker out of existence. He held the Lotus Blade aloft in his hand and stared at it for a moment before speaking, "Something to help Kim."
The blade sparked and glowed in his hand as it transformed into a cool glass of water.
He looked at the glass of water and shook his head in confusion as even after eons, Ron Stoppable was still unable to figure out how that was going to help Kim.
He shrugged and raised the glass to his lips to drink-
Kssss
Ron looked up at the stone ceiling at the new sound that entered his world.
What was tha-
BOOOOOOM
Even in his cave, Ron felt his body shake at the explosion and he prayed his cave wouldn't collapse in on him as the sound outside reverberated throughout his shelter.
Quickly transforming the Lotus Blade back into a sword that he stowed on his back, Ron ran from the cave and looked outside just in time to see…he wasn't sure what he saw.
The sandstorms that covered the Earth were no more and for that Ron was thankful as he would not have been able to see what it was that had made the noise. It appeared that all sounds on the planet had ceased as Ron looked to the heavens.
Three meteors fell from the sky and trailed a golden stream behind them as they plummeted to the Earth. The meteors tumbled towards the ground, hardly falling away from each other as they continued their descent. It was only near the end of their fall that they drifted away from each other and soon disappeared beyond view.
Ron tracked their falling movements with his eyes before they were lost on the horizon and like a kid on Christmas, he raced after the meteors. He was eager to see what the meteors were and he prayed that he would find them before the sands covered them.
He smiled a broad smile as he raced through the endless blood red sand, he had a mission and he wasn't going to fail it.
"It's good to be back," he said broadly before disappearing among the now still sand dunes.
Earth
25,987,354 A.D.
Ron trekked through the sand, his shoes constantly being overcome with sand but still he journeyed.
Ron took a deep breath as he stopped and leaned against the side of a sand dune, his hands sinking into the icy, ruby grains as he held a leg up and shook sand out of his shoes.
He waited until most of the sand was out of his shoes, but the moment he set his foot down, the sand had filled his shoes completely.
With a shake of his head, Ron started his trek again towards the meteors, all the while wondering what sort of exciting debris he would find.
Maybe it would be a piece of a radio to contact humanity or even Lowardia.
He smiled at the thought.
Maybe it would be old space junk for him to play with.
He shook his head at the crazy nature of that thought. Looking for toys at a time like this?
What Ron wouldn't give for a...
He stopped mid-thought as he crested a sand dune and looked down in awe at a crater of melted glass about the size of a sports stadium.
He ran down the side of dune and stopped at the edge of the still cooling glass.
A hesitant footstep onto the glass, cringing as the glass creaked and cracked beneath his weight.
He took another hesitant step onto the glass but it appeared that the glass was cooling as the sounds lessened.
Another cautious step.
Ron gave up all caution and sprinted towards the center of the crater, the glass objecting to his running with every foot fall.
As he neared the center of the crater, Ron slowed to a stop. His prior apathy replaced with genuine curiosity as he saw the middle of the crater, the point of impact was empty.
He crouched down near the center of the crater and tilted his head to the side in wonderment as he saw the outline of a body in the center.
"But where is the body?" he muttered to himself.
Ron stood to his feet and looked around and stopped as his gaze was fixed on a mysterious sight.
A trail of cracked glass led away from the center and away from him.
Ron followed the cracked glass to the edge of the crater and stopped where the glass turned back into sand.
Leading away from the glass, in the direction of another cloud of golden smoke were a set of footprints.
Ron looked at the prints quizzically, his mind refusing to believe what his eyes were showing him.
"It's not possible," Ron spoke but with a deep breath he stood to his feet.
A pause.
"But then again," for the first time in millions of years Ron smiled, "It just might."
Disclaimer: Disney owns it all, I own nothing.
Author's Notes: And with that Ladies and Gentlemen, we have finished the wild act that was Act II: The Machine. I hope you enjoyed the ride and I will be back in a few weeks for the start of Act III as I'm putting the final touches on the final act of this story. Until that time, enjoy yourselves and be merry.
While writing a chapter I usually play several songs that set the overall tone of the chapter and get me in the proper mindset for writing, they're all safe and you can play them around your kids. If you want I'll post the song list at the end of this story for an increased experience if you chose to reread the story, a Director's Director cut if you will, but again only if you want it.
For this chapter I had one song on loop that was Take Us Back, By Alela Diane. Normally I don't put my music in the author's notes but this week I just felt that it was a really good fit for the chapter and it really captures Ron's story. So for an added experience, reread the chapter with that song playing in the background.
Special thanks this week goes to Twuscany (All in good time old friend), Taechunsa (You've been with me how long and you still don't know to watch for red herrings?), Darev (Drakken is next on the date list), Joe Stoppinghem (I wouldn't mind joining the OBoyz), Sentinel103 (Felix never got his props in the show until now), Eddy13 (Always darkest before the dawn), CajunBear73 (It was either Shego going nuclear or a herd of bears wiping everyone out), gonekrazy3000 (Glad you enjoyed it), and Katsumara (I don't have to listen to you man, you're not my real Dad!).
As always, thank you to you, the silent reader. Thank you for tuning in every week and reading this story. It warms my heart that you all enjoy it.
If you have any comments, questions or concerns feel free to write me, PM me or just drop a review.
Until next time,
TRS