Chapter 86

Plans, Future Plans, and Shit I missed

“Father,” My rebellious world tree child, Prime - the eleventh, calls out to me. “I should warn you, that my junior, fellow world tree siblings, are telling me that the alternate version of you is attempting to come to this dimension.”

Hearing that, a lot of alarm bells ring in my mind. “Why?” I find myself asking incredulously.

Fortunately, Jess is now an open empath and can understand the mental waves being sent by the world tree. Otherwise, this would likely cause a lot of confusion.

“What do you mean why?” Jess asks.

Nope, never mind, this will in fact be awkward. “Okay, so we are now close enough that the world tree that I planted in this universe, on the last time loop, can talk directly to me.”

“Wait, a tree can talk?” Jess asks.

“Father, perhaps I can be of assistance here.” The tree offers.

“What? What is that?” Jess asks.

“I am father’s favorite tree; you may call me Prime.” The tree offers.

I decide to keep my feelings to myself, for the time being.

“So, you could have included her at all times, you just decided not to?” I ask. Don’t say I’m being hypocritical here, I said I would keep my feelings to myself, not my thoughts.

“Father there is still more I must tell you. These are things that I don’t think you would want her to hear.” Prime says.

Of course, Prime says this to both of us. I know, because Jess is giving me a look that says I better let her know what the tree says.

“Well, it is too late to not include Jess now.” I state.

“Very well then father. I shall explain the different developments in the alternate universe. But I must first inform you of what is happening in this universe as well.” Prime says.

“Okay, go on.” I say, letting a little exasperation fill my voice.

I can feel the tree seeming to look from me to Jess, then back to me. This is odd as I am only really interacting with its consciousness.

“Father. Your Twalo might not like part, of what I am about to say.”

After hearing that, I close my eyes and wonder if I can get a time loop restart right now to five minutes ago.

Deep sigh.

I take in a deep calming breath, then open my eyes to turn and look at Jess. Her eyes are trapped on me, like a pet eying their favorite treat. There is a deep hunger there that all but states, now that you have shown me the treat, you better give it to me, or else I will bite you and pee in your slippers.

Not that I think Jess would pee on my slippers. No, she would likely do something far worse, like write on the back of my wings with permanent marker while I was asleep. That is a threat she came up with one time, and it has been quite effective, for I could hardly scratch the middle of my back before. Now I couldn’t reach the back center of my wings to scratch or clean them. Fortunately, I haven't needed to scratch my wings as they don’t have any nerve endings. But my wings are an easy target for permanent markers, nail polish, and any other form of semi-permanent markings.

“Go on, out with it.” I say, realizing this is only getting worse. Why did I think this would be an easy job? And how can I get fired from it?

“Well, if you insist father. I think you should help the alternate universe’s version of you. See there, in that universe you were not around to take care of your brother. Also, Wizard Kyle, as you have called him, has somehow managed to keep his memories from the different time loops.”

“He has?” Jess cuts in, before I can ask the same.

“Yes, both he and that universe’s version of Jess both were able to avoid the memory wipes associated with the resetting of the different loops.” Prime says.

“How did they manage to do that?” Jess pushes.

“That is not for me to say. All I can tell for certain is that they are still pair bonded, much like father currently is as well.”

With that Jess stares at me. I mentioned the fact that I was pair bonded to the alternate universe’s version of Rayquel. Though I might have glossed over the fact that I was still pair bonded to her.

Jess just stares at me, a look of anger filling her face, as I mentally kick myself for taking this stupid job and getting closer to this blabber mouth tree.

“So, you still have feelings for Rayquel?” Jess asks me directly.

“Whoa, it is not like that. Just part of my soul is in her, and part of her soul is still apparently in me.”

Jess glares at me, before asking.

“So, you are saying, that she completes you?”

Yeah, this is not going well.

“So, my brother in the alternate universe messed this up?” I ask, trying to get the tree to change the subject.

“Yes, that is what I have been trying to tell you. Apparently, the brother mind erased Jess’ mind on the second loop. The problem started with this time loop, where the embedded commands to unconditionally fall in love with Chet Goldman caused a loop error, as Jess had never seen Chet in this lifetime. Thus, she awoke this time to find her mind in a coma.” Prime offers.

“Oh, that is awful. We really should help those two.” Jess says.

“I agree.” I say.

“There is just one problem. Well two problems, currently father.”

“Two problems?” I ask.

Sighing. My tree, my rebellious tree, sighed at me. Not just sighed, full on exaggerated teenager sighed, at me.

“Don’t you remember your vision? The one where we found two different Prolaxian Heralds? Shouldn’t we act upon those first? Especially if you are going to go gallivanting to another universe to play hero for those other trees, and mom?”

“Mom?” Jess asks.

“Yes, mom is there.”

“Who?” Jess asks.

As this is going on, I feel a pit growing in my stomach. This is going to be bad. No, worse, this will be terrible. Like a burning plane crashing into a train, I cannot look away.

“Yes, the real Rayquel, Father’s pair bonded partner, is there. I am okay with only having father, he is the most important to all of us. I can even deal with having the fake mother here. But I cannot stand the idea of those other siblings of mine having both mother and father, it is just not fair.”

Crash, burn, boom.

Yep, there it is, my tree has once again directed Jess’ ire directly at me. We haven’t even landed yet, and he is already causing problems. I decide to try to take control of this conversation before it can go too much further off the rails.

“So, your odd dependency issues aside. What is this about two different Prolaxian Heralds?” I ask, before continuing. “I mean, I know about Admiral Lemitov, but I will need to target him when he is out of his ship. But what is this about a second Herald?”

Deep sigh.

My tree just mentally sighs at me. How does a tree even sigh? The whole process cannot be natural to a tree. Yet, with that one action the tree manages to express so much discontent that it is not even funny.

“Father, don’t you remember your vision you had not ten days ago?”

I blink. “I remember bits of an odd dream, but I was in a drug fueled coma then. I can’t say I remember much.” I say, then I turn to Jess. “Oh, that reminds me. I apparently have a very low tolerance for drugs. I don’t know what it is, but I cannot think straight after them. Please, if I ever need to go to the hospital again, for burns caused by orbital bombardments, or anything, just let me wake up and heal myself naturally.”

“Heal yourself naturally?” She asks, as if that is one of the stupidest things she has ever heard.

“I am a really good healer. The best according to the universal system.” I protest.

“He is, even in the alternate universe, his healing abilities are well noted. Or at least they were. Now those memories have been lost to time.” My tree says, backing me up on this inconsequential part.

I almost want to say something to the effect of, oh now you back me up, but I decide against it. This is almost over.

“Anyways, you were saying about a second Herald?” Jess asks, and I am ever so thankful that she has changed the subject back to what is most important, the heralds.

“Yes, the second Herald that Father managed to discover from his vision. He even managed to get a full name and description of the person.” Prime offers.

“Well?”

“There might be a bit of a problem. Father has never met this person before, so getting to them would be tough. They are an elite of Dwenvarian society.” Prime states.

“The Dwenvarian Queen?” Jess asks.

“No, but good guess. That is surprisingly close, actually. The herald from this universe that Father was able to uncover is the Dwenvarian Queen’s Bro consort. Though I will tell you, from what I gathered. The Bro has also gone through her own transformation process and is now also a female.” Prime offers.

“Oh yeah, a Bro. That is the really cool idea that Dwenvarians have of having a friend that is with you throughout the transition process? Someone who knew you before, during, and after the transformation?” Jess asks, trying to make sure she understood correctly.

“Yes, though there is a bit more.” I offer.

“Yes, Father is of course referring to the fact that a Bro also has the privilege of having the first child with the person who asked them to be their Bro.” Prime states.

“Meaning, that the first royal Dwenvarian child also has her, or had her, as a father?” Jess asks.

Shit, I didn’t even think of that political connection. Not only would we have to deal with the Dwenvarian queen, but we would also have to deal with any royal children the two might have had as well. This just makes things far, far worse.

“There was of course more that we gained from your vision.” Prime offers.

“There was more?” I ask.

“Yes, you have amazingly realistic visions. From your visions we were able to see some of the unique powers that these two heralds have.”

“Well what powers do they have?” Jess asks.

“From what we were able to gather, the Admiral Lemitov herald can summon forth a nearly infinite number of Prolaxians.” Prime offers.

With that, I remember my first herald, or Prolaxian Infiltrator. This was of course the one from the fourteenth universe, the one that was the Endarian Secretary of Defense.

“Wait, I remember fighting that one from the alternate universe.” I state.

“Yes, at the time, you were able to be close enough to seal off the portals and make it so everyone only had to focus on killing the herald. I recommend much the same this time around.” Prime offers.

Makes sense, “so that means I will have to be the one to both expose and fight him.” I state as a matter of fact.

“Yes, though that is not the most important one. There is also the second herald and her insanely destructive power.” Prime states, and once again I feel a giant pit forming in my stomach.

“Did I find out what their power is?” I ask, somewhat hesitantly, as my mind is telling me that I might not like the outcome of this.

“Yes, you did. Of powers, this is one of the most powerful of the Heralds, if also one of the most limited in scope.”

“Well?” Jess asks, expressing the agitation that I too am feeling.

“Their power is the power to kill off all first-born children.” Prime states.

At that I pause, and look to Jess, but then realize she has an older brother. Then I realize I too have an older brother, one who is a dick.

“Wait, so they can kill Chet, and this is a bad thing?” I ask.

Sigh.

My tree just freaking sighed at me, again.

“Father you are missing the scope of the power. Don’t you remember the vision you had, where Goldie was there, bound to the tree?”

At that, I do remember part of that drug induced haze of a dream. In there, I remember Goldie was bound to the trunk of Prime, though prime was a lot bigger.

“Wait, are you worried that this would get you?” I ask. I am about to argue with him that he is being ridiculous, as he was the fifth tree I planted, and the eleventh world tree overall.

“No Father.” Prime states with a hint of exasperation. “I am your fifth tree. We are also outside the purview of the direct influence of the Heralds.”

“So, what is the problem then? I mean, don’t get me wrong. Such a power would be able to shatter the universe, first born children must make up a good portion of the inhabitants of the universe and all. I mean, I know we are talking about the original version of the Thanos Snap, and all, but what am I missing here?” I ask. I am not being mean, at least not trying to be, but there is clearly something deeper that Prime is trying to tell me, something that I am clearly missing.

“Fine then. I will spell it out for you father. I had hoped to avoid making it obvious with her listening in, but it seems that I am left with no choice. I am referring to the fact that your vision directly warned you that if the Dwenvarian Queen’s Bro Consort uses their powers it will directly affect Goldie. Well not Goldie directly, but the baby within Goldie’s stomach.” Prime states.

At that, I feel like I have been gut punched. As suddenly all the components of that drug induced dream come back to me. Goldie’s bulging belly, the fact that Goldie is Goldie and not the Goldhammer. So many different things all click into place.

“So why is Goldie so important in all of this?” Jess asks.

I am about to say no, to try to stop this before it can go any further. But Prime decided to answer anyways.

“Because she has Father’s baby.”

And just like that, my life that had been on Easy Street, suddenly made a sharp turn onto Rochambeau Alley.