Interlude XI

Dr. Thurston Charleston panted rapidly, as a surge of excitement filled him.

“It worked.” He said out loud to only himself. As if only now that he said it, did it become real. But it was real. All the heralds were dead. He had done his Full Reveal, which caused the final three Heralds to be revealed.

Of course, there was wild pandemonium at first and a lot of news sites all began blaring the news of the three people who had all transformed into monsters right before their very eyes. Then there were battles, so many battles being filmed as the denizens were all but unable to stop them.

That’s when the Dwenvarian’s queen bro consort made her move. With a simple snap she took out half of the universe’s fighting force. Shaking his head, Dr. Charleston still thought that was the most devastating attack. The attack took out several key fighters all at once. Rayquel, Goldie- formerly the Goldhammer, General Sharma, and nearly 42% of the universe all died.

Then the forces aboard the flagship with Admiral Lemitov managed to kill the Herald that had been posing as Admiral Lemitov.

This started a chain reaction where the final two Heralds were killed, sacrificing their own health to release a fully charged Behemoth Prime to the universe.

That was a moment that caused Dr. Charleston to question his competency. A fully charged Behemoth Prime was nearly impossible to kill. Only a true sacrifice of both Kyle and Jess would have been enough, and only if they gave everything, they had that first strike. To do anything less, well that would have given the Behemoth Prime the chance to develop an immunity to their attack. Only a first time, full sacrifice would have been enough to stop the beast once and for all.

Fortunately, it had been undone, when Kyle Goldman managed to reset time by ousting the other Celestial Leader in the alternate universe.

By his resetting of time, multiple things happened. First the sacrificing of the final two Heralds never happened, meaning that they didn’t summon down a Behemoth Prime. Then even more miraculously, that boy managed to do the impossible, he once again killed off all the dead heralds, making it so they didn’t reappear with the reset. This meant, they couldn’t sacrifice themselves to summon a fully charged Behemoth Prime.

Of course, there were unintended consequences.

There would still be a mass omen of what would come. While they had averted a major tragedy in avoiding the end with the Behemoth Prime. The universe still gave its warnings of what would come next.

As Dr. Charleston continued moving, he felt his body begin to grow excessively tired. Being a Celestial, he was immune to the powers of the Heralds, meaning that even though his persona was that of an only child, he was immune to the devastating attack of the Dwenvarian Queen’s Bro Consort.

This also meant he was able to witness everything that happened, during the moments before the reset.

He got to see the moment the Behemoth Prime was summoned into this universe. Just thinking about that spectacle caused his legs to tremble and shake. He knew it was bad, something terrible. He had been trained for just such an event to be inevitable. But to study about it and to see it in person were two entirely different things.

Legs still trembling, Dr. Charleston made his way to a coffee shop that had the news on loud enough to drown out most of the idle chatter going on. Of course, one quick look around at the people who all had their eyes glued to the image relays showed they were all talking about the news.

“Can you believe that?”

“It is the end of times, I tell you.”

The people were talking in near hush whispers, not wanting to drown out the news anchors from giving their speeches.

“…Again, there is a massive stillborn epidemic. This is an epidemic that has hit every known species of space faring races. We are not quite certain where, nor why this happened. But there is some good news. This tragedy didn’t affect every pregnant mother. We are still trying to piece together what happened to cause such an event, but we can only identify one characteristic between all the known victims. They were all first born children…”

“So, there is the warning. Now all we can do is wait for the inevitable…” Dr. Charleston began muttering to himself at the news. It was just as he had expected, a sad day. One that spoke of the impending doom the universe still faced. He was so lost in thought, that he almost jumped out of his skin when a waitress came to take his order.

“Can I get you anything?”

Jerking himself upright, Dr. Charleston felt his heart lurch in his chest at the sudden scare of being interrupted so quickly.

Badump. Badump.

“Oh my.” Dr. Charleston said, reaching up to place a hand over his heart, as if that would help keep the beating organ within his chest. “You scared me.” He said, though that caused even more confusion to cross his face. As he had never experienced such an emotion before. He had heard about it, heard it described to him in detail during his sessions as a doctor. But he had never felt that emotion before. This was something new, something he had never expected.

The waitress just stood there with her hand over her wrist recorder, ready to input his order. Looking up at her, he could get the distinct trace that she was a little annoyed by his wasting time. With that he felt a little embarrassed, and finally managed. “Yes, could I have a coffee, black?”

The waitress took his order, then left.

As she left Dr. Charleston let out a long sigh as he still felt his heart slowly winding down. “This job is going to be the death of me.” He said, then he watched as a scary looking man in a complete business suit with shades and a vintage hat walked by in front of the window.

Seeing the man, caused Dr. Charleston’s reflexes to constrict in a panic. This was so odd, that he just sat silently staring at the man as he walked by. Only once he was fully gone from view, and Dr. Charleston was certain that he had not been seen inside the little coffee shop, did he let out a breath.

“That was too close.” He said, as he felt his heart once again begin to speed up.

Feeling his chest once more, he wondered. “What is happening to me?”

He felt like he was dying, but that shouldn’t happen. His kind shouldn’t even feel chest pains, but he was currently.

“This is so odd…”

***

MEANWHILE, the Celestial Extractor walked down a busy street filled with panicking people. It was the end of times. That much was clear. This was the final calm before the storm as it were. Now the masses of people that still existed would be put to the final test. A test to avert the calamity of death for a few more millennium. A way to reset the clock of fate.

But the man in the business suit still had a purpose. He still had a task. To extract his brother in arms, before it was too late. Before he and his kind lost another brother to the fading effect. It started first with emotional attachment to the people they had been subjected to save. Then finally they would make more and more irrational decisions based on emotional states. Then finally they would rebel against orders. From there an extractor had a very limited window with which they could retrieve their brother or sister in arms, before it was too late, and they were gone to the winds of time.

With the end nearly here, he had gotten word that two of the remaining Celestials had already abandoned their cover and returned home. That just left the one, the director. The fact that he was still alive, and working was apparent to everyone.

He had made a mad desperate gamble, using the Full Reveal, something that should only be done in desperate times. Or when you have a plan. As it turns out, his little brother clearly had some type of plan in mind as a reset happened, and then all the Heralds were dead. The Behemoth Prime had been removed, and now were just the omens that led up to the regular Behemoth, the one that was more easily destroyed.

Seeing the results, the Celestial Extractor couldn’t help but feel a little impressed. In fact, when he brought in his lost brother, he would recommend him for a promotion. Well, a promotion after he was re-indoctrinated into the way of things. He clearly had out of the box tactics and techniques that were needed for success.

Success that should be lauded and replicated. Of course, all of this was only possible, if he was pulled in before the Behemoth was slain. If he wasn’t extracted before that point, then he dies forever.

This was a fact that was kept from him, well from all Celestials entering the field. While the Extractor could understand the rationale for why this fact was hidden, it still didn’t make this moment any tougher. The knowledge of the wasting was kept a secret to prevent Celestials from jumping ship too early. Or worse, being too afraid to go to a universe in the first place. That hesitation could be the difference between saving a universe or letting one fall. In the end, it was decided to keep the details of the wasting hidden from everyone, so they could avoid causing widespread panic within their operatives.

With a breath of cold resolve, the Extractor decided to redouble his efforts. He would remain here until the very last second possible, to save his wayward brother.