The Decima, enroute to Lo-Nine

Gideon

The Watcher's were here.

He rushed from the lower deck hatch scrambling to the hangar.

"Where did it go?" he spun, darting around.

He searched for movement as Excertius and crew joined him in the main hangar.

"Good Gideon, ship scanners are in a state of chaos trying to gather the entity's signature. It's as if it's occupying every inch of this vessel," Patricia announced.

"I have the entity on visuals," Steak added.

"Where?"

"Here."

"No M'chalan, you Bissra!" a girl's voice rang out.

A blur of black robes rushed past Gideon's face. A slap rang against his forehead as something stuck fast.

"Ow! What the hell!" Gideon turned to Steak, seeing a yellow sticky note firmly attached to the anform’s sole eye camera.

Upon it was a hand-written face. His own face drooped to deadpan upon witnessing the crude drawing.

He tugged at his own note, seeing his was a beaming, smiley face. He looked over at the others, seeing they all had their own sticky notes affixed.

"Gideon, we need to catch her- beat her at her own game," Deborah suggested.

"Game? We have an intruder aboard! The Dusk!"

"She is a child," she countered.

He sighed, dematerializing his weapon as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"No lethal weapons, then. Try to 'tag' it," he ordered.

Deborah's wings branched out from behind her back and she swiftly took off into the middle of the room where the Watcher was staring at them from atop a crate.

They both blurred and rushed around, faster than sight. The air snapped and cracked with thunderous movements and broken sound barriers. He saw several after images of both Angel and Watcher. The tiny figure then vanished higher into the vessel, leaving Deborah alone.

"Can't catch me, Bissra!" was her final taunt before her robe train slipped through the ceiling.

Deborah touched down nearby, covered head to toe in sticky notes.

"She is fast!" the Angel's sheepish grin peeked out from underneath a mask of post-its. She crossed her arm, sending dozens falling like the leaves of a Fall seasoned tree.

"Come on!" Gideon shouted as he ran to the upper decks. They scrambled up the ramps to the, almost crashing into Baxter and Saddiffer.

“Gid! There is a bad guy here! And they have stickies! Stop stop stop!” He looked down at the miserable corgi, seeing him covered in notes. He stifled a laugh as the dog took large, one-legged, exaggerated steps as the bottom of his paws had been tagged by crudely drawn notes. This Watcher was cruel.

“Mm, so that’s why I saw the cube move,” Saddiffer huffed. He tore off a single sticky from his snout.

“Where did she get the office supplies??” Gideon’s exasperated voice rang out.

“Master Baxter, glowing one, I have an idea to crush the threat once and for all-”

“No killing! It’s a child! We need to tag her- it- whatever the hell it is!” Gideon roared back as they marched down the halls.

Everyone gave withering looks to the unaffected Eudaemon.

“Very well- we ‘tag’ the little one once and for all, but the idea still stands,” Saddiffer began.

They all listened to his plan and began patrolling the halls. They all got into position. Baxter let rip a panicked bark upon seeing the tiny robed Watcher.

“Pupper-ducker-kitteh!” The intruder cried in glee as she ran up and around the hall walls and rounded ceiling, dodging Gideon’s grab and sticking him for his trouble as he dove. Steak and Pat jumped and dove as well, missing entirely. Deborah split into five others, walling off the hallway. The Watcher simply phased through the ceiling, breaking the blockade of angels.

A ghostly robed hand reached up behind Baxter, grabbing hold of his furry rump. He screeched a bark, spinning around to get the bad guy. The hand vanished, appearing behind him again to squeeze his rump.

"No no no! You are bad I will bite you! Baxter is not for squishies!" He protested as he spun around.

"Squishy squashies!" the Watcher replied as she ascended from the floor and began running down the halls with Baxter in pursuit.

Gideon got to his feet and chased after her with Deborah rushing ahead. The Angel outpaced everyone as she and her copies shot down the hall. Shindow zipped along just inches away from catching the Watcher.

"I got her- I got her!" she cried as her little holographic hand was outstretched.

The Watcher spun, slapping at the tiny AI and sending her spinning into the wall. Shindow was propped against some filigree decorations, a large holographic sticky note stuck on her head was of a dazed, dizzy, and crudely drawn face.

"Didn't get her," Shindow muttered as they passed by her fallen form.

They all stopped, watching as the intruder turned, taunting them with strange and childish gestures.

"Can't catch jes'iah!"

Gideon noticed her language was strange as if someone was trying to say two or three different words at once, coming out with spaghetti language instead.

A utility closet door opened silently as a clawed hand reached out and swung down. Gideon's heart stopped. The Watcher turned slowly and he saw the damage. A lone sticky note on the back of her cowl. Gideon deflated with a sigh. Saddiffer was playing nice. Saddiffer peaked out with a large and demented grin, a glowing blue eye floating above his head.

"Foreshadowed Foresight nets me victory, once again!"

He grabbed the scruff of her robe, lifting her high as she went limp.

"Aw…."

Gideon marched to her, lifting her cowl. Her perky, wide-eyed smile mixed with her alien features was oddly disquieting.

And adorable.

"What are you?"

"Oh! Yeah, I'm W'ou'chala desti'aya mil'turna decombucha…"

She kept going, speaking that bizarre heavenly language- glossolalia. Deborah nodded with a serene smile, which was somewhat ridiculous with her sticky note layered robes.

He couldn't help his stunned and tired expression as the little girl finished her long tirade.

"... But you can name-call me…"

They stared from

"Ee-fee?" Shindow replied incredulously.

"Yup! Aoife! I'm a Seeker!"

Gideon did a double-take at the strange and eccentric creature. This couldn't have been the Dusk.

This was the enemy of mankind in the old world? It couldn't be. She was too bubbly, too mischievous, and too child-like. He expected a completely alien identity, not whatever this was. He remembered his run-in with them, the psychic mind lances, the pressure of pure terror, and the crushing weight of both the gravity of their race and his own mortality of humanity.

He was staring at humanity's bane. It had a name. Aoife the Seeker.

"Let's get her to the lab," he reluctantly decided.

They all marched their way to the science lab with Saddiffer padding behind, carrying the passenger. They shed their sticky notes, dematerializing them into junk storage.

Saddiffer plopped her down on the table and leaned padded away, folding both arms and wings about himself in a sullen statue against the corner.

They stared at another silently, exchanging glances. Deborah was the first to break the quiet.

"Aoife, are you hungry? You are safe here with us."

"Uh-huh!" Aoife nodded hurriedly.

Shindow materialized a meal ration for her, which Patricia prepped. It was a spicy chicken biscuit with goat cheese, prepared fresh by self-terminating nanite 'chefs'. She ate noisily and with gusto. Gideon suspected everyone here all wondered how her digestion worked. She appeared to be a semi-organic, crystalline lifeform just based on appearance alone. It was similar to Deborah's alabaster physique. Both were made of minerals. Although again, this was his one and only Dusk being to be investigated. Angels had countless different forms. If Watcher's were of divine design, who was to say they weren't as diverse?

"Mmm! Pepper jelly!" Aoife muttered hungrily.

Gideon folded his arms, mentally preparing the question that haunted him to this day.

"Why do you hate us?"

Deborah pursed her mouth, "Why would you ask that?-"

Gideon stepped forward, cutting her off. He stared intensely at the Dusk- Watcher.

She gulped down the last morsel, suddenly serious. The gaze of those crystalline eyes chilled him.

"We do not hate," she said flatly.

"But the kidnappings, the war- Kraken nebula!" he bit back as if that dreaded shame of humanity said it all.

"Dris'ya."

He held his composer at her unknown retort. Everyone kept silent, watching intently.

"We weren't made with hatred, dris'ya, but of love. We were never your enemies, but your caretakers."

"What do you mean- The Great Filter?" he asked.

She nodded with a slight smile and a glint in her eye.

"In the time of the great wars on Earth, Father stated his sadness was too much as he watched humanity suffer. In that sorrow and resolve, we were created. A divine race unlike the Angels and servants of old. A new helper for a new age. Humanity reached the stars for the second time. The third and final act of the physical plane was upon us all. We were tasked with preventing Great Filter events, either man-made or by the universe's galactic wrath. Those who would cause such events were collected. To say we hate humanity would make as much sense as saying Father, who made you and I, also hates you."

She stood, standing at eye level with Gideon. He could almost touch her nose with his. It was unsettling that she had neither a filter nor personal space. She tapped his nose with a smile, the childish persons returned.

"Boop! Got your nose- Dwell'a!"

He let out a grunt, folding his arms.

"Then why the facade of terror and fear?"

"We were made that way, silly goose! As much I wanted to explore human worlds like I did with the Proturans and the many other races of that time, that line separated us until after Megiddo- after armageddon. It also kept humanity united against a common threat, Dwell'a!"

He glanced at Deborah, then back to Aoife.

I have to ask. Deborah had not been forthcoming.

"Aoife, where are we in the timeline?"

He searched his inventory, finding an old item. He materialized onto the table.

It was an old printed Bible. It looked mint, which was to his shame- it was largely unread. Deborah put her hand down gingerly upon the book.

"Gideon, Aoife, please- if you learn of it too soon-"

"Please answer, Aoife. Where are we in the timeline relative to this?"

He moved Deborah's slender hand away from the book. She pursed her lips, but acquiesced. Shindow floated nearby, adjusting her glasses.

"Are we in the millennial reign? Or afterward in the time of final tribulations?"

Aoife knelt down, gingerly collecting the book. She was both child-like in how she held it, and wizened beyond ages in how she pondered the answer.

She opened to the first page, flipping the page with as much tenderness as if the pages were wet. Gideon saw his green, yellow, and orange highlights of his studies.

She kept flipping through each page, passing Genesis and Exodus.

The highlights had become scarcer and scarcer. He didn't like being reminded of his back sliding. She passed the book of Judges, the books of wisdom, Proverbs, and the books of the final prophets for Isaiah and more. She flipped into the new testament, where his highlights had vanished completely, as did his faith.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Of course she would flip through those. He knew which book she'd stop at. He held his breath as she passed Roman's and Corinthians. The books of Peter, First John, and Jude were also passed by.

She paused at the book of Revelations.

The room tensed, awaiting for that jump-scare of insight. All was quiet.

She turned each page, slower than before as if analyzing each letter. She flipped and flipped, turning to the final dozen pages. Aoife then closed the Bible, gently patting it and placing it down on the table. She began moving along the table towards the far wall. She phased through it and into the next cabin. They all just stared blankly, awaiting the news. They shook awake, realizing she was gone.

"Come on!" Gideon cried as he rushed from the lab past Steak and Pat.

"What does it mean!?" Shindow shouted as she raced behind.

Baxter barked up a storm as he followed. Deborah sullenly marched behind.

He opened the doors to the next room over, seeing Aoife standing on the floor. She palmed her chin, pointing around the room with her tiny index finger.

"Um- Dr'lla, we're right here!"

She knelt down, pointing at the floor.

"Whaaat??" Shindow cried.

"Yup! All prophecies have been fulfilled. It's finished! That book is now a hundred percent historical document! Isn't that exciting?"

"What do you mean ‘all prophecies’?"

"Silly goose, it's after Armageddon! We're in a new time of the Somatheonic realm! Isn't that great?"

Gideon gaped at her. Nothing made sense.

"Then what was all that?" He madly gestured at her, "page-flipping??"

"Showmanship! J'sai!" She barked as she stood and struck a pose.

He felt a chill in his heart as if he were pushed free into open space and his safety line hewn free. He felt uprooted, ungrounded, and spinning into the chaos of their new reality.

The question was the silhouette of a hung body along the horizon of existence.

Where is God?