“As humans we are all scared to die, some of us accept the fragility of our lives and death’s cold embrace as our final feeling. But some of us…dream of being immortal. As we grow older we begin to realize that our life is an ocean, time is our boat moving us through this ocean and death is our destination. Everything else we experience is temporary, the happiness, the sorrows, the love and the hate. It is only natural to crave the idea of immortality, what if there is no death? What if we exist forever?”

“Ask me all these questions and I’ll tell you one thing. Immortality is a curse, you get to watch everyone you love die, and soon you are left alone with faces you aren’t familiar with. Loneliness…is the gift of immortality and loneliness slowly drives you to madness. However you still live and after a brief romance with immortality…you start to crave death. You get exhausted from life. Such is my case, a man who has seen so much and yet failed so many times to prevent it; A man who wants to die and be done with this curse…this curse given to me by time itself.”

“I am tired of seeing the same end every time, whatever I do, doesn’t work. The black hole eats up everything and everyone and then I am left all alone. Time mocks me and throws me back to the beginning, enjoying my suffering, demanding him in my place; the real Issac Wolfe.”

“After continued failure, I think it is time to give up my stubbornness and hand over the real Issac to Time. I must admit that I am afraid and uncertain as he knows nothing of the journey ahead. The journey to the Corridor of Time, he doesn’t know the cunning nature of Time and the ridiculous visions it shows to screw up your mind. I can only hope that he finds a way out…I can only hope that he puts an end to this time loop.”

The Overseer accompanies Reed to the hall and they stop near the normalizer. Reed starts operating it and has a huge grin on his face. He powers up the transformers and starts feeding the energy to the normalizer. The hall starts to shake as the normalizer gets the energy from the transformers, after a few moments the normalizer gets charged and starts concentrating artificial chronotons in the empty space in front of them. A crimson aura starts surrounding the empty space and the hall begins to tremble even more.

The Overseer looks at the excitement of Reed and shouts, “Looks like the first rift is about to form right in front of our eyes. Witness its birth Reed; soon you’ll be free from the shackles of time!”

As the first rift forms the Overseer moves closer to Reed and says, “You know…you are by far the most obedient and stupid Reed Maximus I have ever created!”

Hearing this Reed’s grin starts fading, he looks at the Overseer in confusion and asks, “Created…stupid…what do you mean?” The second rift begins to form closer to the first one and the Overseer starts moving away from Reed, “You know in old times shepherds would train a special kind of goat to lead the herd to the slaughter, it’s called a Judas goat, normally that goat would be spared, but in our case I’m afraid I will die with all of you!”

Reed looks at the normalizer’s readings as the third rift starts to form. Everything seems to be in order, but he is perplexed by the words of the Overseer. As the normalizer starts creating more rifts Reed starts sweating, he looks at the power output and it’s more than what the normalizer can handle. He looks at the Overseer and asks, “What is the meaning of all this? What game are you playing?”

The Overseer calmly removes his mask and throws it away, he turns around and looks at Reed with cold eyes and says, “Don’t worry we still have a few rifts left before it all goes to shit! It is almost time to reveal all the pieces on the board”

As he says this, Mary, Issac, David and Anna appear from the main corridor and watch the crimson rifts forming inside the hall. Reed looks at all of them and is appalled. “What the hell is going on here…Mom…Anna… this fucking traitor and why does this guy look just like you?”

“Ah yes! The perfect reaction, anger and horror in one frame! Meet the people who have tried to stop you. Harbinger couldn’t join us he preferred his family over you. Remember your failure in P: 210 it was me and Bill, your failure in P: V01D it was your sister. The robbery of the scanner that was Bill and David together, the demise of Dorian and his lab, it was the combined work of Issac, David and Bill. Your mother and I were the architects of every dent inside this sinking ship of yours!”

Reed’s world turns upside down, the pawn realizes that he can never be the King. He trembles in anger and disbelief, “No…no…I was played from the start? I should have never trusted you…no worries…I still am going to achieve annexation and then I’ll deal with all of you!”

The normalizer starts shining red lights and Reed looks at the holo-screen in fear. The computer says, “Normalizer stability decreasing, use the emergency stop button!”

Reed scurries to the emergency stop button and bangs it a few times but nothing happens. The rifts keep forming and start clashing with each other, flashing crimson light across the hall; the normalizer still keeps rumbling and he keeps sweating. The Overseer joins Issac and the others and shouts, “And this machine…the normalizer…this is my checkmate! Annexation is a far-fetched idea at this point, because the truth is these rifts will collide into a big black hole of nothingness…and I think you know what I am talking about!”

Reed looks at him with wide-open eyes, “No…you fucking mad man! You’ll kill all of us, and you people…are you fucking suicidal. You all are going to die if the normalizer doesn’t stop!”

Mary looks at him with watery eyes, “The truth is son…we are all voids…our lives have no meaning…this scene has happened countless times…we are all stuck in a loop. A loop the Overseer initiates after every failed attempt, we don’t matter in the grand scheme of things and we have come to terms with it!”

David holds Anna’s hand and says, “Even if we don’t matter, the feelings we have for each other are still real. The emotions we feel when we are together are still real.”

“This is the end Reed, and this is exactly how I wanted to die! Surrounded by people I love, holding each other’s hands. I have seen a world where you win and I see now, what the Overseer wanted from the start…we are all ready to die if it means you can be stopped!”

The rifts start clashing with each other at an accelerated pace, crimson light flashes every time they collide, the normalizer starts to shake and Reed looks in vain as he loses control of the situation. Issac looks at the Overseer who smiles at him, his eyes full of sadness and his face radiating some kind of timid hope.

He gives Issac his enhancer and says, “I have set the coordinates, you have a date with Time and it’s best to not keep it waiting!” Issac wears the enhancer and asks in confusion, “What will I do…I don’t know anything.”

Mary holds his hand and replies, “You have to make sure something like this never happens, find the event that diverts our world to this end and change it at any cost. Give our void existence some purpose!”

David and Anna hug Issac and she says, “You are the best detective I have known…you are a great man…I’ll miss you!”

The Overseer hands him the photo and says, “Don’t forget us Issac…even if our faces fade away and our bodies turn to dust!”

Reed watches their last moments in panic and despair, he can do nothing but watch as his grand scheme derails. He holds his head and screams in agony. The enhancer starts to beep and the Overseer shouts, “Thirty more seconds, on the 5th second I will start to disintegrate, there can only be one Overseer. You have to teleport to the corridor before the black hole starts swallowing everything up!”

Suddenly, the normalizer explodes sending Reed flying between the rifts. The rifts start circling each other and move closer to converge. He looks at the rifts in horror as he feels their enormous energy pulling his body apart, he screams in agony as he is torn apart by their force and then the rifts finally collide together.

The Overseer starts to disintegrate, he smiles looking at all of them and slowly fades away into nothingness. The rifts become a small black hole which starts to rapidly expand pulling everything inside it.

Issac looks at the enhancer and then at everyone else. He hesitates and looks at Mary in confusion.

Tears start flowing from his eyes; seeing him like this, she rushes towards him and hugs him tightly, “You are our last hope Issac, set things right…we are counting on you!” saying this she holds his left hand and presses initiate.

Time slows down as the teleportation begins. He watches Anna and David kissing each other, he sees the black hole slowly growing in size and pulling them inside. He looks at Mary and her last words echo inside his ears, “Goodbye, detective!”

P: 210

Bill teleports to the woods and looks at his house from afar, as he starts moving towards his house he starts getting flashbacks of the events that transpired in the origin universe. The story of the Overseer and his connection to his past and future, the reality of his existence, he never really had the time to sit down and process everything and now that he was finally thinking about it all, “What a futile existence we all have!” was all he said as he rang the bell.

Elena opens the door and seeing him drops her laundry basket and hugs him tightly. Bill stumbles as her loving embrace takes him by surprise; he takes a few moments to balance himself and then wraps his arms around her.

“We all missed you so much, it’s been 4 days but it felt like 4 months!”

“I missed all of you too…Ronny’s work took more time than I initially thought. Nothing to worry about though he is settled now and all is good, where are the kids? Where is Aria?” as he asks this Aria comes running from the stairs and hugs his leg. “Daddy I missed you so much! Did you bring a gift for me?” Bill looks at her with love and replies, “I missed you too, I’m sorry I couldn’t bring anything but we can go to the lake together with your brothers.”

Elena tells him that the boys are still at school to which Bill replies, “Alright let’s wait for Daniel and Rick, I’ll change my clothes and you both get ready too. I could use some family time after so long!”

The clock reads 5:30 P.M. and the family sets out for the lake. They all seem so happy; for once Bill forgets the end that awaits them. They reach the lake and the boys start spreading the picnic blanket, Elena sends Aria with her brothers to play around the lake. Bill lays down on the blanket and looks at the sky, he takes a few deep breathes and closes his eyes for a brief moment.

He pictures his whole life in that moment and then opens his eyes, in front of his face he sees Elena looking inside his eyes. Her gaze so penetrating, he feels like she is looking inside his soul and then she smiles and kisses his forehead. “I love you Bill…I could have never asked for a better life partner, you, me, our kids and this perfect day. This memory will remain with me forever, nothing can go wrong today!”

As she says this Bill feels a slight tremor behind his head, the ground suddenly starts to shake violently. Aria screams in the distance and they both get up from the ground and start running towards her scream. Bill realizes something, “The end of the cycle…I just need a little more time…this is too soon!” as they reach the children.

Elena gets rooted to the place she stands, Bill looks at the children who stare at the horizon with wide open eyes. The golden sunshine soon fades away and a black shadow wraps all of them. He finally looks at the horizon and sees the black hole expanding and slowly swallowing the lake, trees uprooted from the ground.

Aria looks at Bill and asks fearfully, “What is it daddy?” and Bill replies in a grim tone, “The end my love…it’s the end!” the black hole expands more and more and soon starts pulling them inside it. Daniel holds Aria’s hand as she floats towards it but he cannot hold her.

Rick sees his brother slipping and quickly grabs his hand and starts pulling him back. Elena does the same when Rick starts slipping and floats in the air, they all feel the pull becoming strong and strong. Bill hold Elena’s hand, but their weight is too much for him. The black hole soon becomes so massive that it starts eating up the core of the Earth, the planet destabilizes and explosions start occurring around them. Before being dragged Bill looks at his family and says silently, “Even if it was all a lie…it was at least a beautiful one!” and they all fly violently towards the black hole.

THE DESOLATE WORLD

David looks outside his window, he sees the destroyed buildings and the darkness which surrounds the rebel base. He starts slipping down memory lane, with open eyes he imagines what it would have been like if the Ravagers were never made, if Reed didn’t figure out time travel. It would have been a happy world, everyday he would have woken up by her side, the love of his life, Anna Maximus. He then looks at his hands and starts trembling, the time he held her dead body punctured with bullet holes comes back to his mind. Tears roll down his eye as it all plays in his mind.

Before he can wipe the tears, he hears sounds of screams and gunfire coming from the hall behind his door. Explosions follow and after a lot of gunfire and screams of death it all stops. He looks nervously at the door and soon it blows open. Bright rays of flashlights blind him and he covers his eye. He can hear a man approach him, he holds his hand and twists his arm, “Found the rat…we have cleared the building no one is alive but him, send in Reed!”

A few moments later Reed enters his room and walks around, he sees David in his pathetic condition and starts laughing, “This…this is what we were finding…a bunch of amateurs and a cripple who can’t even walk? You know…I was going to order them to stop investigating the anomalies they found in the ravager footage.”

“A few days ago we discovered some strange activity; the ravagers couldn’t identify 3 black spots on the roof of this building. My team was curious so I ordered them to keep an eye on this place and look at what we found…the last remaining scum of old Hawkesbay!” Reed moves towards David and mocks him, “What happened to your feet? Oops, I forgot…ravagers fucked you up pretty bad in that battle! Tell me David…what…or should I ask who were those anomalies the ravagers couldn’t see?”

David looks at him with disgust and replies, “Fuck you Reed! You are a fucking monster…you destroyed everyone’s life…you killed your own mother and sister…all for this power…for playing God with our lives! I will never tell you…go ahead and end my life…I’m miserable anyways!”

Reed looks at him and gloats, “If you chose to stick with me none of this would have happened to you people, your choice was not my fault. You did this all to yourself! Cats like to play with food…I’ll kill you that much is certain…but before that let me play a little with you!”

Suddenly, Reed hears a lot of chatter on his comms. “Sir, we are getting reports of a huge anomaly near MSAT tower. It’s a black sphere which seems to have formed out of nothing…and SHIT!”

“It’s expanding…it’s…pulling...us…inside…” and then a long static follows. Reed looks outside the window with concern and sees a black mass growing towards them. It pulls everything inside it, many ravager bots vanish as they can’t escape its pull, soon the building starts trembling too.

David looks at the black hole and starts laughing like a maniac, he has watery eyes and after a brief moment stares at Reed. Reed looks at him with fear, the helpless look he had before was gone, “This Reed…is my Checkmate. If you tell someone my story…and how it is going to end they’ll say I probably deserved better. But I don’t care because at least you are getting what you fucking deserve! This anomaly is a black hole…and it is going to turn us all into nothingness!”

As David finishes his last words, the building starts to crumble and Reed can see his helicopter sucked into the black hole, soon the walls of the room disintegrate and his soldiers start flying off into the dark abyss of the black hole. The Earth starts to collapse as the black hole’s mass becomes greater than the planet and it explodes, destroying everyone and everything that existed.