෴Hex෴

෴Raz෴

෴Brock෴

෴Wraith෴

෴Nicolette෴

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

Before I go.

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

Hex watched Brock show Raz and Midnight through his collection of strange projects. She chatted with Nicolette about the details of studies into the nature of the Incursions. NIcolette was thrilled to talk about her passion.

“It blows my mind! What he said about the conversion of corporeal velocity into some form of interstitial chronological transit impetus will revolutionize the physics of time and space as we know it!” the excited woman said, her gaze far away as she imagined the possibilities.

Hex nodded. “Doesn’t it seem weird that a portal meant to connect two worlds would have time travel as a side effect?”

Dr. Stilt-Ivaldison chuckled at the sight of Brock gesticulating at Raz and Midnight, holding up a belt made of some kind of hide and chain, adorned with a ridiculous large round buckle. She looked at Hex and smiled. “I thought that too! That’s what got me thinking about this question,” she leaned in and looked the younger woman in the eye, “If this is true, what would that mean?”

Hex considered twenty unrelated topics across six aspects then shrugged. “I don’t know. What?

“Another reality!” Nicolette announced loudly enough for the men across the shop to stop and look over at them.

“It is another reality.” Midnight called out.

Dr. Stilt-Ivaldison nodded in a self satisfied way. “You see, there’s really no reason from a physics standpoint to expect time between realities to line up at all. Are you familiar with Einstein’s special relativity theory with regards to velocity and time dilation?”

Hex pursed her lips and half-shrugged. “Sure, if by familiar you mean, ‘I’ve seen movies that talked about it’ kind of way. Don’t ask me for math or formulas.”

Dr. Stilt-Ivaldison giggled. “Don’t feel bad. I’m not sure anyone has the math exactly right on this. It’s not like we can accelerate to lightspeed and find out. The thing is, there is every reason to assume that any two worlds have vastly different rates of time. Even across space. But across realities? It could be such a big gap that for all we know, a few days one place is thousands of years in another.”

Hex distractedly glanced over at Brock and then frowned. “Wait, if that's true, how could these gates even work? I must be missing something.”

“Well, this isn't even a hypothesis, but my napkin thought is, the gate would have to somehow synchronize the time between both ends of the portal.” The older woman said, beaming.

Hex started to nod absently, then stopped short. “Hold up. I’m no scientist, but having two entire realities, no, that’s too crazy to consider. Lets just say two worlds, on vastly different timelines, somehow have that time synchronized? I can’t help but think of an old story my dad used to read to me when I was little. It’s a favorite of his.”

Dr. Stilt-Ivaldison looked intrigued, and was about to say something when she spotted fresh tears welling up in the younger woman’s eyes. At the mention of her father, Hex had leaned forward and put her head in her hands. Elsewhere in the world, her other active aspects stopped what they were doing and took a moment to think about her father. Even the aspect living in the same home, taking care of her parents and adoptive children paused to give space to the thought.

Despite the engaging conversation with Nicolette, before she’d thought of her father, most of her minds were busy elsewhere, on other topics. Most of her attention had been focussed on what Midnight had told them about the Megiror, and what to do about it.

Elsewhere, she sat with Wraith in one of the mobile headquarters and discussed camera logistics and sat-link microdrones before suddenly stopping the conversation amidst a rush of emotion.

Wesley ‘Wraith’ Smith was explaining her drone options. “We’ll need someone on the ground to bring in a sat link. I can remote pilot ten of them if you just want observation. For any kind of situational maneuvers, it would be more like two. What do you need to see in Mongol—”

She interrupted him.

“Wesley, are your parent’s alive?” she suddenly said.

He shook his head in surprise at the abrupt change in topic. “Um, yes, no. I mean. My pop’s alive, semi-retired, as he says. Full disclosure, that’s code for ‘you’re now employing him as a diesel mechanic’. Mom’s been gone for over fifteen years now. Medical malpractice wrongful death, it was a whole big thing,” He cocked his head to the side and looked at her. “Why do you ask?”

She wiped at her eyes. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Look, I don’t want to dig up painful memories, but I need to ask you a hypothetical question. If you could prevent her death, what would you do?”

He leaned forward and gently enclosed one of her hands in both of his. “A junkie doctor may have killed her, but she was sick for a long time before she died. Pops and I had a long time to say goodbye, to get used to it. So even if I had a time machine, I couldn’t just go back and save her.”

She nodded in agreement and waved her other hand to dismiss his words. “Sorry, I’m asking that wrong. How about this, just for me, pretend your pops was going to die next month, and it was maybe, just maybe, within your power to stop. What would you do to stop it, if you knew about it right now?”

His hands suddenly gripped hers tightly enough to hurt. “Anything!” he shook his head in denial at the thought of losing his father. “I’d do anything. I don’t do much preaching these days, but I try to be a man of God. This is a lot like a conversation he and I have had before. So I know he wouldn’t want me to do evil for his sake, but outside of that there isn’t a thing I would let stand in my way.”

Her pensive expression cleared, slowly becoming a radiant smile as he spoke. When he finished, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. “Thanks! I hope you never have that dilemma! That’s what I needed to hear, let’s get those drones ready!”

Back in Brock’s workshop, Hex jumped to her feet, surprising Nicolette with the sudden movement. “Raz, can I talk to you for a moment?”

He joined her and they stepped outside. Less than a minute later Raz stormed back in ahead of her. “Brock! Will you set up a door for me please?”

Brock dropped the small gold ring in his hand to the workshop. It hit the steel table with a heavy thunk as though it weighed far more than a simple gold ring should have.

“Of course! Vhere to?”

Midnight wheeled on Raz. “What are you doing? We don’t have time for side trips! Don’t you understand the danger your mother is in?”

Raz nodded emphatically at Midnight, then turned to Brock. “Hex has a location for you,” he curled his finger in beckoning at Midnight, “Let’s step outside and talk about that.”

Hex hurried over and gave the coordinates to Brock. She watched with concern as Raz and his older self stepped outside.

A few minutes later, Brock had the door ready and powering up. Muffled shouting from outside grew louder as the two men came back in.

“—don’t care! I’m not asking your permission. I’m doing this!” Raz shouted at Midnight, his anger obvious in his tone and posture.

Midnight shook his head with regret. “This is a foolish waste of time. Whatever you’re do—”

Raz cut him off. “Shut up! You don’t get to talk about time. You’re obviously just going to bail on us all when things get tough anyway, so don’t think you have some kind of seniority here.”

The older man threw up his hands. “Fine! Will you at least tell me what’s so important that you’re bailing now of all times?”

Raz huffed with annoyance. “Oh now you care why?” He stepped over to Midnight and spoke quietly for a few seconds. Midnight’s gaze snapped over to Hex.

“I see. I guess there’s no talking you out of it.”

Raz nodded. “I’ll be as fast as I can. Feel free to do any prep you need to do while I’m gone.”

Midnight nodded and sank into one of the chairs. “It’s fine, just don’t blow all your energy. You’ll need everything you have for Mercator.”

“I’ll be ready.” Raz called out as he passed through the door.

The Serena aspect was waiting for him in her parent’s backyard. She told him what she knew about her father’s condition, and prognosis.

“My mother took the kids to the park. She needed to get out of the house. This is probably our best chance to avoid her.”

Raz raised an eyebrow at her. “You trying to avoid me meeting your parents?”

She let out a weak smile. “Hardly, I’m just not sure now is the time.”

He gently bumped his hip against hers. “I’m kidding, this is most definitely not the time.”

They went inside and sat down next to her father’s bed. At a glance, she noticed that the morphine pump was up another notch, it was now set to the maximum safe dosage for a man his size.

“I, uh, don’t know how long this will take, or if I can even do it for sure,” he started.

She held up her hand. “Say no more. I get it. This is home hospice. That means they’ve given up. There’s nothing they can do for him,” she wiped her face with her sleeve, “He wouldn’t want to live like this, so if you can’t make him well, don’t—” she choked, “don’t prolong his pain.”

He nodded solemnly, and closed his eyes.

Abruptly, the room filled with a sort of low, almost subliminal roar. It wasn’t a sound exactly, more like a feeling. The sound that wasn’t, emanated from Raz. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but it was somehow obvious that he was using his healing ability.

A few minutes later, the roaring pulse stopped, and he opened his eyes.

She jumped to her feet. “Did you? Were you able?”

He smiled, his expression, even under his increasingly wild beard, held a deep, forlorn pain that made her heart ache to see.

He dug a box cutter and a lump of solid catalyst from his pockets and made a careful incision on the back of his hand. She watched in fascination as the stone-like chunk sucked in the blood, then became a red blob, then transformed again, into a thick, translucent, amber fluid. He rubbed it across both hands then looked up at her.

“I just needed to top off the tank and automate some of this work. So far it isn’t hard, it’s just a lot of work.”

Her heart sang with sudden joy. “So you can do it?”

His already wan smile faded slightly. “I think so. There’s a lot to do, and a lot of damage has already been done. I won't pretend I have a grip on all the underlying causes, but I’m making good progress on the effects. I’ll let you know more in a while.”

He grasped her father’s hand and closed his eyes. The room once again filled with a strange, almost irritating feeling that something was happening. Even with her own eyes closed, the source of the irritation was clearly Raz. This time, the sound and feeling was even more intense, almost twice as bad.

A few minutes later he spoke. As he spoke, the feeling of his ability use diminished, but didn't stop. “A woman and two children have entered the house. They’re in the kitchen, but the woman just told them she’ll be coming in here in a moment.”

Hex rushed to her feet, composing herself into the persona of her Serena aspect before going out to greet her mother and adoptive children.

She could still feel the sensation that told her Raz was working. Despite the sensation being a bit irritating, the feeling made her smile come a little easier, her heart a little lighter.

“Hey everyone, how was the park?”

She chatted with them for several minutes before her mother excused herself. Hex saw she was heading in to check on her husband, and braced herself for the inevitable interrogation. A moment later her mother returned and leaned in close to Serena. “Who is that!?” she whispered, a harsh tone betraying her feelings about finding a strange man by her dying husband’s bed side.

“That’s my good friend. His name is Raz.”

Her mother made a little ‘hmph’ sound. “Well that fits. Is this ‘Raz’ in a band?”

Suddenly Hex saw Raz in her mind’s eye the way her mother must have seen him. Long flowing hair, an unruly beard, skintight dark gray jumpsuit with armor plates, and barefoot.

She rested a hand on her mother’s shoulder. “Mom, he’s a good man.”

Her mom looked at her with suspicion. “He’s not a faith healer is he? I don’t want no part of anything like that, and your father wouldn’t either!”

She couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “No mom, he’s not a faith healer. He’s just someone who came by to keep me company during a hard time.”

“Then why’s he look like he’s praying?” She asked with an accusation in her tone.

Serena bit back her initial response and just shrugged. “Maybe he is. You pray every night. You got a problem with prayer now?”

Her mother shook her head with tightly pursed lips and a sharp sigh. “No, I don’t suppose I do. Why don’t you go stay with him. I’ll keep the kiddos busy. If you’re not serious enough about him to say he’s more than a ‘good friend’, then I’d just as soon you were in there with him and your father. No sense giving the kids false expectations,” she paused and fixed Serena with a stern gaze.

“You know, on that topic, when your father is gone, you’ll need to think about dating again. We haven't seen a suitor around here for nearly a year.”

“That’s enough! Don’t talk about him like he’s already dead!” Serena whispered with annoyance.

She gave the kids a hug and returned to the ground floor room they’d converted into her father’s hospice bedroom.

Raz was leaning back, fingers interlocked behind his head, looking out the window and breathing in long regular breaths. She could still feel the sensation that had accompanied his use of the healing ability.

“Why did you sto—Are you done?” She asked in confusion.

He shook his head. “Nope, still working on it. Cancer, at least the part I can see and work on, is deceptively simple. If you can kill off cells with enough precision, and find the bad ones, it’s more a matter of cleaning up than anything. It is a whole lot of cleanup though. Of course, replacing the dead tissue with healthy tissue is part of the work, and it’s a big job. I’m doing a lot of on the job learning about cell growth and programmed cell death.”

He rolled his neck and shoulders. “But now we’re into the easy stuff, there’s just a lot of the easy stuff to do. It wasn’t just in his pancreas. I found it in his intestinal lining, and in his liver, lungs, and lymphatic system.”

Her breath caught. “Oh no. Were you able to help?”

Raz nodded, letting his gaze lazily wander about the room. “Yep, your ‘good friend’ Raz, is on the case.”

She winced, her fear that he’d heard the conversation confirmed. “I’m sorry! You’re much more than that. I just–I just didn’t think it was a good time to try and tell my mom that I’m dating this guy she’s never met when this aspect barely leaves the house,” she glanced around as if to make sure her mother hadn’t come in. “Somehow, she’s managed to convince herself that I didn’t just vanish right in front of her a few days ago, leaving a pile of clothing behind.” Serena hugged herself and glanced over her shoulder. “She’s under a lot of stress, and I’m worried any little thing could be too much for her.”

He nodded, his tone even. “I wasn’t worried. I must say I was a bit surprised to hear you were dating a year ago, when I thought we were exclusive almost two years ago,” his gaze snapped to hers, his intense blue eyes transfixing her in place. “But I guess we’ve all got glass houses, don’t we?”

She nodded fearfully. “I’m sorry. I was never all the way exclusive before. Not since I was this way. I shouldn’t have—” she looked down at where his big toe rested against her father’s forearm. “Can we talk about this later?”

He shrugged. “We can… Or, we can just let it go, and not talk about it later. Good news. We’re nearly done.” He suddenly blinked and shook his head.

“Hey, uh, has your dad had a vasectomy?” he asked out of nowhere.

She let out a single barking laugh. “I’m not sure what it says that I know this, but yes. He got one after I was born.”

Raz drew up his hands in a gesture of conciliation. “Um, well. He’s going to need to get one again.”

She blinked, taken aback. “Uh, I’ll try and find a way to bring that up. That definitely won't be a super awkward thing to talk about over dinner before they watch the news.”

He shrugged. “Well, you know, at least now you have more time to figure that out.”

She sat down next to him and pulled herself close to him. The sound of his slow, strong heartbeat was a soothing drum. Whether simple tiredness, comfort, or the nearly painful relief she’d been filled with, she dozed off.

It felt like only a few minutes later when he woke her up with a gentle caress of her cheek. She sat up blinking, the shadows in the room were a bit longer than they’d been.

The events of her other aspects instantly filled in. She was aware of the aspect waiting for a door with Wraith, the minister turned technopath prepared to wheel a stack of crates filled with drones and surveillance gear.

Then she was back in her childhood home. Once Raz saw she was awake, he carefully got to his feet. “We—I, should go. I’ve done all I can. He’ll sleep for a while longer, and wake up pretty hungry.”

She nodded, this aspect still groggy despite the others remaining alert. “Yeah, I”ll—” she let out a jaw popping yawn, ”—walk you out.”

He took her hand, and looked into her eyes, that same intense gaze now filling her with safety and peace. “He still has a long way to go. At his age, and overall condition, I wasn’t sure I could just return him to peak health without causing some other problem I couldn't predict. I don’t know enough to be too aggressive about dealing with age related damage. I cleared out the problems, and set his body on a road to recovery. He’ll need to eat right, and get enough activity to get back into the swing of things,” the gentle smile she loved so much came over his face, “But now he’ll have a chance to do that.”

She buried her face against the smooth warmth of his chest armor, suddenly finding herself without words. All too soon, he kissed her forehead and reminded her of the fleeting time.

They passed her mother on the way out, the older woman looking over Raz’s unconventional appearance with undisguised wariness. Raz bid her goodbye, then Serena walked him to the door.

A moment later a red eyed Sia met him in Australia with the tightest hug she could offer, pressing herself close to him so hard he took a step back to brace himself. The embrace was followed by a kiss that burned with passion and promise. “You really did it! I can’t believe it! Thank you so much!” she burst into tears, simultaneously chastising herself for crying in the happy moment and acknowledging the heavy weight that had just been lifted from her.

He smiled down at her tenderly. “It’s ok. We should still have a day and a half at the minimum. This fight sounds like bad odds. Can’t predict how it will go. With such a real chance that I might not make it back, this was something I could do for you before I leave.”

Hex felt something inside her shatter with a burst of joy alloyed with a new level of fear. A guarded part of her, that for so long she’d all but accepted was there to stay. It vanished in a soft, warm, painless breaking. The loss, or change, to some small part of herself she’d reserved for so long. The part of her deep inside, that she’d used to hold herself back from ever fully committing to any one. Without that small part holding a piece of her aloof, she realized she was in real trouble, falling even harder, for a man about to risk his life in battle.

She reached up and took his head in her hands. He obligingly bent over for her. She held tight to his head and kissed his cheek, then pulled his ear down to her lips. “You’d better come back to me. I’m all yours, don’t you dare leave me alone now.”

He turned toward her and gently kissed her lips, his soft kiss sending her heart racing, leaving her breathing hard. He whispered back to her. “I have no plans of letting some alien with delusions of grandeur get the better of me.”

She smiled, the expression still tinged with worry. “Good, be careful, and don’t hold back. I can see it in his eyes, you know. Midnight is more than just worried. He’s scared.”

He nodded, the smile leaving his face in an instant. “Yeah. I see it too.”

With an effort she could almost feel, Raz forced a carefree smile onto his face, relaxed his embrace with her, and looked over at Midnight. “You’re still resting to get your energy level up?”

Midnight nodded his head, his posture looked defeated already. Something about his weathered face looked even older than usual.

Raz reluctantly disengaged from Hex and walked over to Midnight. “You were talking about waiting on me, but seriously, how long does it take you to get full up?”

Midnight sighed heavily, and was about to respond when another shimmering door appeared. They watched it rapidly go from a shimmering light to a solid physical object. A fit balding black man that looked to be in his late thirties with a pleasant smile came through. Hex remembered Jim Hunter, the genteel former school teacher and guidance counselor from Midnight’s safehouse, and from interviewing, and hiring him shortly thereafter. Jim was immediately followed by the even more muscular form of Fidel Chavez.