"Have you heard of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice?"
Marco groaned. "What is this, a pop quiz? I thought I was done with those when I graduated- well, not graduated. You know what I mean."
"It's a Greek tragedy. The story goes that-"
"You know what's tragic? This conversation." Marco faked a yawn. "I think I'll go wake Jake up to take over my shift. What time is it anyway?"
"Just humor me, will you?"
Marco sighed dramatically. He couldn't even remember what they were talking about that led to this conversation. "Fine, Birdboy, tell me the tragedy of Opeus and Eurywhateverthefuck."
"Orpheus and Eurydice."
"Whatever dude."
"I won't bore you with all the details-" Marco let out a snort "- but the tragedy goes like this: Orpheus and Eurydice are lovers. She dies. In his grief, Orpheus decides to go down to the Underworld to rescue her. It's a whole epic, long journey. Long story short: he rescues her. Kind of. He makes a deal with Hades, king of the underworld, to let her go. Hades lets her escape. She can follow Orpheus all the way back out of the underworld. The only condition is that Orpheus can't look back to make sure she's following. But it's a long, epic journey you see. And towards the end of the journey, he can't hear her steps anymore. Just as they're about to make it, Orpheus can't help but look back. She's then forced to stay in the underworld forever. Here's the kicker: in certain versions of the tragedy, it's alluded to that the story keeps repeating itself over and over again. The hope is that maybe the next time, Orpheus won't make the same mistake. But he always looks back."
Marco let out a low whistle. "Nice bedtime story. Is there a reason you're telling me this?" Then he narrowed his eyes. "Is this about Rachel?" Maybe it was a dick move to ask straight out. But there was something off about this whole encounter. There was something off with Tobias. Maybe posture? The voice? His eyes?
Tobias shook his head. "No. Well, not entirely. It's about all of you. And humanity really."
Yes, it was definitely the eyes. They were stormy and dark and- were those stars? Were those actual literal stars in his eyes? Marco took a step back, unnerved, looked around and- Yes, he was still aboard the Rachel. Everything was in its place and yet it all felt wrong. And when he squinted, the walls were- Yes, they were almost translucent.
"What?" he said, dread beginning to take hold in the pit of his stomach. "What is this?"
Tobias smiled at him sadly. "I was hoping the illusion would hold a little longer. You always were too smart for your own good."
"Illusion?" The dread spread to the rest of his body. "What are you-"
"You're dead, Marco."
His face turned white. He remembered now. Ram the blade ship. He swallowed hard. He quickly sat down on the floor.
"So this is what, some fucked up afterlife? You're dead too?"
"This isn't an afterlife. I guess the best way to put it is that you're not technically dead just yet, only frozen right before."
As he spoke, Marco noticed that it wasn't just the ship that was translucent. Tobias was too. "Ellimist," he whispered.
Not-Tobias smiled at him again. But he didn't turn into the old man the Ellimist always presented himself as. He just said, "Yes."
"Why are you here? Why are you cosplaying as Tobias? Is he dead? Are the others-"
"I'm just here to talk. Aximili and Menderash are dead. Jake, Jeanne, and Santorelli will be dead soon. Tobias will too, in a way."
If he hadn't already been on the floor, the grief he felt then would have knocked him had had failed so badly that-
"You didn't fail," the Ellimist said, still using Tobias's voice. "You destroyed the One's plans. You saved thousands of lives that would have been taken over by that creature had you all not intervened."
Like it mattered. They had never set out to save thousands of lives. This mission was only about saving one. "The others. How did they-"
"I think it would be simpler if I showed you."
The air shifted around him. He was still aboard the Rachel, though it was now in ruins. He saw Jake, Tobias, and Jeanne, all human, all crouching and crying around- Marco swallowed hard. Menderash, head bashed in. Ax, a gaping hole in his chest. Himself. Marco brought his hand to his side. It had been practically cut open by some machinery when the ships had crashed. There was so much blood pooled around him. He could physically feel the agony and grief in the room, mixing with his own. He turned to the Ellimist, opened his mouth to tell him he didn't want to see this, and then, as if he read his mind, the scene in front of him changed.
They were no longer aboard the Rachel, but in a smaller ship. An escape pod. Jake was at the controls. Santorelli was sitting next to him.
"This took place- will take place- in about a week or so," the Ellimist said. As he spoke, Santorelli stood up and walked towards the back of the ship, expression blank. He picked up a pole. "The rest of your friends thought the One had been defeated back at the blade ship." Santorelli walked to the front of the ship, holding up the pole. His eyes flashed red. "We were wrong."
"Jake, watch out!" Marco yelled, uselessly. Jake turned. Too late. Santorelli swung the pole, hard, and Jake fell like a sack of potatoes. Immediately, Santorelli was at the controls, typing away furiously, changing course.
Jeanne was the first one out into the control room, weapon in hand. "What happened? What-" Santorelli turned to her, eyes still red. The smile he gave her was not human. Neither was the speed at which he ran at her. She fired the Shredder, missed. Santorelli was on her in half a second, bashing her head into the wall. Once. Twice. Marco knew the instant Jeanne died because he physically felt it in his stomach. Santorelli bashed her head once more.
Then he was kicked across the room by a hork-bajir foot. ((Jake! Jeanne! Wake up and morph!)) Tobias yelled. Being kicked by a hork-bajir would normally kill a human, or at the very least severely injure them. Santorelli morphed. Breaking every rule Marco knew about morphing, he was a polar bear in less than two seconds flat.
((What the-)) Santorelli was suddenly on top of him. Tobias kicked again, pushing Santorelli into the control panel. The ship rocked. Santorelli dove at Tobias again. The fight was over in a couple of minutes. Tobias fought hard. But a polar bear is the fiercest predator on all of earth. And The One was somehow supercharging it. Marco watched in horror as The One held a broken and battered Tobias up by the throat. But it didn't kill Tobias. Instead, its eyes flashed red, the color growing in intensity. Tobias, who had been feebly struggling, went limp as he looked into the polar bear's eyes.
"It's starting to absorb him," the Ellimist explained, once again reading Marco's mind.
Suddenly, the polar bear roared and dropped Tobias. It fell to its knees as a tiger sank its teeth into the bear's flank. ((Tobias! Get to the panel! We can't let this thing escape again!))
Tobias limped to the control panel as Jake continued his fight with The One. No matter how much he clawed and bit at the polar bear, it did not go down. Suddenly, the ship accelerated in the opposite direction as Tobias punched in new directions in the control panel. The passengers were slammed to the front of the ship.
The One got a hold of Jake. Made him look into its eyes. Tobias crawled across the small ship and grabbed Jeanne's abandoned shredder. He switched it to the highest setting and fired at The One. The blast should have killed it. The polar bear roared, its fur burning. But it did not let go of Jake. Tobias switched gears, pointing the shredder instead to the front of the ship. At the window. He met Jake's gaze, his eyes now glazed over and a horrible tint of red.
((Do it.))
Tobias fired. The window cracked. The One turned to him then and charged at him. Too late. Tobias had already fired again. And again. The window shattered and there was nothing left to protect the ship's passengers from the vacuum of space.
"Nooooo!" Marco screamed as Jake's body fell off the ship, as he felt his best friend die. Jeanne's body followed after him. The One had gotten a hold of Tobias as he held onto the console. It tried to reach over him at the panel. Tobias slammed his fist against the panel and the ship was spinning now, out of One clutched at Tobias, trying not to fall. Tobias let go of the console. He and The One tumbled out of the ship.
Marco closed his eyes, expecting the physical pull of his friend's death. But it didn't come. Marco opened his eyes, and watched as the Ellimist essentially- Well, he zoomed out of the illusion. He watched Tobias and The One continue to fall. He saw them be sucked into a black hole.
Still, Tobias didn't die. Neither did The One. At least not yet. Time fast forwarded in front of him. Marco didn't know how long. It could have been a few months, or a few centuries, but eventually he felt The One die. Saw the creature be killed by the Ellimist. Toomin. Tobias.
Marco turned to him, eyes narrowed. "It's you. It's been you this entire time."
Tobias smiled at him, though his eyes were sad. "Your friend Tobias died in that black hole. Too much time has passed. I've experienced so many lives, some lived, others acquired through memories, that I could never claim to be just one person. But yes, I was once Tobias."
Marco shook his head. The implications of what he was saying were- well, he couldn't think about it right now. "I still don't get it. Why am I here? Why are-" He thought then, of the story Tobias had told him. "You're trying to change things." Something like hope began to spread across his chest.
Tobias, not Tobias, shook his head. "It's not what you think. I can't change anything that has happened here."
Marco's heart sank. "Okay, so you can't bring me back. But The One's attack hasn't happened yet. We can still-"
"No," Tobias was shaking his head again. "I can't change anything here again. It would violate the rules of-"
"This isn't a fucking game!" Marco exploded, throwing his hands in the air. "What the hell is wrong with you!? These are your friends, damnit! You have the power to change things. I know you do! So fucking do something! "
Tobias stared at him for a moment, then said, "If I were to save any of you right now, Crayak would immediately retaliate by destroying humanity. He might send a deadly disease or a weapon like the Howlers to annihilate every creature on earth." Marco swallowed. "He's done it before."
The story keeps repeating over and over again. The feeling of dread was back. I can't change anything here again. "What is this, some twisted groundhog day?"
Tobias tilted his head, thoughtfully. "In a way. Time… time is a tool, a weapon, even, that Crayak can wield. That I can too. But not without its limits. Some things we can change. Maybe you save someone who later fathers a doctor who goes on to find the cure for polio or cancer or whatever. In the future, someone who would have died from said disease as a kid instead becomes a prolific campaign manager who helps elect a president that wouldn't have been elected otherwise. Said president prevents what would have been a world ending war. Etcetera, etcetera. You remember the time matrix." Marco nodded. "But other things… some things are unchangeable. They will happen regardless. I don't know why, but they do. The yeerks will always invade earth. The outcome of that war may change, but not the fact that it exists. Tobias will always fall through that black hole. It might be when he's 19 or 60 but it will always happen."
It was too much. This was all too much. "Why am I here?"
The Ellimist smiled at him. "Because you've always been great at finding the bright clear line. And right now I need that."
Marco yelped as suddenly there were strings and lines and threads of all lengths and colors around him. He had the strangest feeling that if he moved, he'd be cut in pieces. Tobias snorted. "These aren't lasers." Marco glared at him. He really hated it when he did that. Tobias ignored him. "This is the fabric of time and space. A copy of it anyway."
"Right, because that's so much less terrifying," Marco muttered. Still, he reached out a tentative finger and touched one of the section of the thread vibrated, and immediately, the threads around it began to vibrate as well.
"That's a ripple," The Ellimist explained. "Some changes have much bigger ripples than others. Watch." Tobias reached out a finger and plucked one thread. The strings around it barely moved. He plucked at another and hundreds of threads around it began to vibrate. One of the threads, one that seemed to stretch for miles, shook violently, shaking other threads as it went. Marco followed the string with his eyes until he saw-
"What the hell is that?"
Tobias waved a hand in the air. "Jesus fucking christ," Marco exclaimed as the strings all moved to the side, a new section of the threads now in front of him. Tobias waved his hand again. This new section of threads made way for new ones. The Ellimist was scrolling through the threads. He continued to do so until the section Marco had seen appeared before them. The rest of the thread had been taut and a bright, glowing white. This part was brittle, twisting and sagging, and a putrid greenish-black.
"I call it the rot," Tobias explained. "This is one of those things that can't be avoided." The rot spread from one section of threads to the rest. Tobias scrolled through sections of the threads again. Soon, the only threads Marco could see were those that were rotting.
"What is it?" Marco said.
"It's not good," Tobias said plainly. "It's like a poison. Maybe a virus. Every thread you see here represents thousands, millions of sentient beings destroyed by the rot. Not killed, but worse. If left unchecked, it will continue to spread to all threads around it. This is what I wanted your help with."
"Don't suppose I have much of a choice," Marco said bitterly.
"Of course you have a choice, Marco."
"Yeah? Stay here and talk to you or go back to bleeding out aboard the Rachel?"
Tobias winced. "Yeah, sorry. I can't-"
"Can't interfere. Yeah, yeah." Marco rolled his eyes and sighed. It had been the right move, to come to him as Tobias. Marco was angry. So very mad and bitter and betrayed. But it would be so much easier to refuse to help the Ellimist he knew, an aggravating strange old man, than his old, trusted friend. Marco wondered for a second if maybe the Ellimist was making the whole thing up. But what difference did it make, really? He was still dead.
"I've run through hundreds and thousands of scenarios," Not-Tobias said. He zoomed out of this section of threads. Zoomed into other sections of threads. He strung some threads. Cut others. Braided some with each other. "I've even played out a couple," he admitted, "when I thought I had figured out a way to contain it." Every time he zoomed out, the rot was still there. Sometimes the spread of it was bigger. Other times it was contained to smaller sections of threads. "I can't get rid of it. I can only hope to contain it. Try to delay it as much as I can." Marco stepped back. There were hundreds, thousands, millions of possibilities. How could he possibly-
"I found one possibility, one way to contain it as much as I can." Tobias zoomed out one more time, carefully zoomed in until he found a specific set of threads. He cut them. He zoomed out again and again and scrolled and scrolled. Finally, towards what seemed to be the end of the threads, Marco saw the rot. It was contained to a few single strings. "If I play my cards right, I may even be able to contain the Crayak here." Marco looked towards the end of the threads and saw only darkness.
"What's-"
"That's the inevitable heat death of the universe. Or this universe at least. Maybe another one eventually evolves again. I can't say for certain." Not-Tobias shrugged. Marco blinked at him. "Don't worry about it. It won't happen for another few million years."
Marco shook his head, looked back towards what was left of the rot in this scenario. "It seems like you have your answer then. Why not set it into motion?"
The Ellimist zoomed back to where he had cut the strings. He pointed at them. "This is humanity."
Marco gaped at him. "No. No! Are you insane? How is this even an option?"
"I've been looking for other options for centuries. I haven't found any other way."
"Then keep looking!" Marco yelled. "How could you even consider this? These are your people!"
The Ellimist shook his head. "I haven't been a human for a long time. And regardless, it isn't just humanity I have to protect. There are millions of other species out there. Thousands-"
"You can't just undo everything we fought for! Everything you fought for! What's the matter-"
With a wave of the Ellimist's hand, Marco was suddenly gone. Back at the Rachel. But not in pain. The Ellimist filled his mind with only his happiest memories. For Marco, this conversation never happened. He would meet death not with fear, but with a laugh.
It was what the Ellimist should have done in the first place. He never should have talked to him, revealed himself, upset him for no reason before his death. Besides, this conversation usually ended the same way.
It had been a while since he'd appeared in front of his old friends, since he'd told them the truth of who he was.
Hi Jake.
How's it going, Cassie?
Hey, Ax-man.
Maybe he should have gone to Cassie, instead. Technically she wouldn't be dead for another sixty years. Not that it mattered. She might be able to understand.
But.
The Ellimist had not gone to Marco to help him find a solution. He knew the solution. This was the solution. This was what he needed to do.
He could not sacrifice billions upon billions of lives to save one planet, no matter how dear it was to him. He could not be selfish about this.
But.
He had talked to one of his old friends. Felt his anger. His betrayal. The Ellimist had been reminded of who he'd been, once upon a time. He had looked back.
The Ellimist needed to make his next move. He needed to defeat Crayak or risk losing so much more than humanity. He needed to stop the rot.
But the Ellimist always looked back.
He sighed. You win, he thought. He would keep looking. Maybe he would find another solution. Maybe this time, the end would be different.
Maybe if he started from the beginning one more time.
..
My name is Tobias. I can't tell you my last name. Or where I live. It's too dangerous.