Time jumped one more time back to the glitch, it reset reality but while Laurent began his game with five minutes and Emilio two, Sophie was stuck with merely 10.988 seconds. The counter, visible and slowed down was a stark reminder the Sixth Attraction. It still moved and in fact they had minutes, not seconds.

Sophie, the real one was oddly peaceful, she smiled to herself. Everyone was standing around, friends and family ready. On the screen, wide-eyed Marilyn refused to take the lead and break the silence.

10.967

“So?” finally asked a strained Marylin on stage. She was back at straining to hold the influx of future evil energy. Outside in the Multiverse the fight between the red and green colors had returned.

“I knew it,” said the Attractor in the large room surrounded by a hundred guests and friends.

“What?”

“What the President said, I should trust myself, my first intuition.”

“Of course dear one,” replied Liam. “it’s always been that way. What’s the solution?”

“Dream,” she simply added.

“Dream?”

The young girl was talking, simply. “This entire Attraction really began for me when I was in the flight coming to mars. I first visited him,” she put her hand on her father’s head. “My father would never tell me to do anything, much less watch a Round of the stupid game. But he insisted I watch it and I have been wondering ever since why. In that game, there is a Wizard with boundless power, like me today. He faces an insurmountable enemy that even this power can’t defeat. If he kills the General, another takes his place. That’s our problem, no?”

“Instead of changing the world he uses the power to change his enemy, he travels back in a strange new place, a dreamlike place where he does not change the world, he can’t do that, he changes his enemy.”

“Dream is the road to the past?”

“Yes, the President’s game shows that also. We don’t change the past, we change ourselves.”

10.675

Marilyn’s face was strained as if she was holding the force of a hurricane, but she would remain silent until this clock ran out.

“As you saw, time change is hard, it must be subtle, very subtle. Before I can go back to the lies this future self keeps telling you, we need to change you.” She pointed at Marilyn. “This will be hard, I apologize. There is a final piece,” offered the Attractor. She stepped closer to the screen, speaking to the straining creature. “You must see what lies ahead if we are to win. The President did not try to avoid the pain, he let the person find courage, you need determination Marilyn.”

Marilyn, while occupied was puzzled. Nothing she could see at this point would make a difference. Sophie raised a hand.

***

Sophie raised her hand and power flowed.

Began one last vision, it was in the distant, very distant future. The setting changed back to the famous house where Sophie was created, the safe heaven of Laurent.

A mature version of Marilyn was sitting on the porch of the Hotel at the Edge of the Galaxy. It was exactly as Laurent and Mall-ik had left it. This place, out of nostalgia was now her home. Even the small hand painted sign wobbled in the warm Louisiana wind. This was peaceful paradise. Up above, far in the sky rumbled dark colored clouds of some new problem.

The door pushed opened, a tall smiling teenager walked out onto the porch where Marilyn sat. She much older, wiser.

“Francois,” smiled Marilyn to the tall boy. It was clear Marilyn loved this young man.

“Mother,” he just said as he kissed her gently on both cheeks. Marilyn, watching the vision back at the Center holding fort was in shock, around her flooded in the evil energy. She was only focused on this last dream.

The nice young man was her son. He held a large picture book and sat next to her the large sling, took a sip of the lemonade. Marilyn was unable to distinguish what was written on the cover, then it came, the title was The Sixth Attraction. The book, often browsed was filled with images. He flipped the pages one by one looking for a page near the center, then he stopped page in full view. On it was Francois Copland, the Mathematician microphone in hand was on the Sorbonne stage chastising the human race.

“Tell me again about Daddy,” said her son.

Five words.

They hit the creature fighting against a tide. Marilyn would be a mother, from her relation with Francois. The teenager was her son, the only was this was possible was through another attraction. There was no words to describe the shock that vibrated into her through time. This wasn’t a vision, it was the future, her future. One that mattered, one where her evil self had failed and warranted eons of patience.

The Multiverse today was granting one boon tying the Oldest, a creature far in her past to this point and a second tying Marylin to a point far in the future. These were deep strange powers, it snapped and hit the creature as like Liam, Marylin lost all coherence to the onslaught of power.

Now, Sophie needed to heal the generous Multiverse.

The vision ended.