Issue 16: Ill Met By Moonlight
I am not the only one within Pandora’s Box. There are others. But to speak of them now would distract the Twins.—Matarn
It’s usually a man’s place to take the hits within Typherian society but my sister will need to be reforged. Battles do no forgive hesitation. In the past few weeks, she has been learning this. I don’t expect her to go on some rampage but she must be able to defend herself alongside who fights with her. Women often wish there are other ways of containing enemies but Unity must be slain. –Dexter Murphy
Matarn hits like a mack truck. I saw more of the ship deck than anything else. This place dampers our demi abilities. But the footwork is starting to make sense.—Eliza Murphy
Matarn even had Zach and I face off against him. I think I know why. He wanted to see how we all react under pressure.—Lorain Lanis
Time doesn’t pass within Pandora’s Box. Matarn spoke of his journey with her. That first strike against Unity. He knew that the Litari Matriach would betray him. But he also knew we would appear. With his help, I understood how vital it was to stop Unity. This universe is filled with wonders. In my whole career as the Banner, I never took a life, even when I had the All-Father within my grasp, his hubris is what finally did him in. All because his mirror remembered. Evil begets evil. Still, it leaves a mark. A reminder of a cost too high.—Sleeping in Starlight, a memoir of the 22nd century.
The Center of Rykah
Unity Universe (The Burn)
Date Uknown By Terran Calculation
Black crawled through the hellscape. The barrier between the physical and the Weave already breaking down. He caught flashes of Litari, Scholars, and Markav battling all around him. Their screams piercing his mind. Calling out for aid. Pleading for their mothers. Asking their fathers for protection. Something thrummed within the deep. A wicked thing. Covering the city before him with a pulsating haze that drove madness forward in its wake. Smoke filled his lungs. He hauled himself up by sheer will. Each shaking step carrying him closer to his sister.
A hulking shape tore out of the mist.
Its arms and legs twisted.
Black raised his trident. The one object flowing with the remaining embers of the unblemished Weave. Its white shaft was covered with soot. Hurling it at his foe. It crashed into the side of the building and stilled. His arms quaked with the effort. He didn’t think he had another throw left in him. The face that stared out from that horrid beast wasn’t just one face.
Multitudes.
*****
Dexter and I awoke to screams. Ours.
Matarn stared at the sky above. It was never dawn here. Just an endless blanket of stars.
White and Black were curled around each other. Reliving those memories.
Matarn crouched. Placing his hands on the cloth. “They weren’t always like this. These forms are required for the battles ahead. A way to hide them both among the sparks of Defenders.” Doc was beside me in an instant. While Zach sat next to Dexter.
Lorain pulled my face in closer.
The light of her flashlight nearly blinding me.
Matarn asked her, “You wonder why you cannot reach out with that special part. It is because this place doesn’t exist within any normal realm. Outside, only a few seconds will pass. So here is my tale.”
Lorain checked over Dexter. He endured the light as well.
Othanu (Scholar Homeworld)
The First Cycle after Creation
325 OCC
Matarn grabbed his head. The pounding was horrific. Voices cried out in terror.
The silence of those lights prickling at Matarn’s resolve.
He formed sigils in the air. Bringing the Weave in close. His son, Di’axi, huddled against his mother for reassurance. Matarn’s eyes locked onto an invisible point, “They have committed the unthinkable!”
Two figures bled out of the Weave. Their clothing in shambles. He knew those faces. The guardians of the Weave and Leylines. The Mother and Father of All who Came After. He raced to their side. Seeing the White Trident covered in the ash of souls. He linked into the central network, <<The Heart of All has Fallen. Lines crossed. The Unity comes!>>
He had not wanted to believe the council of the Light Shamans. Those Weave Speakers. The thought that White or Black would ever fail in their vigil was unthinkable. There was no time to mourn. They must prepare. He must make the Spear to pierce the Heavens.
Days later…
He lifted the spear from its mold. The script encoded with golden symbols for Life, The Ouro, and the Weave. Which each strike the very lifeblood of Creation flowed into the metals. Taken from the Lands of First Bloom. The place where the Weave first touched the face of the Universe. He ran his hands over it. It warmed to the touch. Filling him with the energy required for the mission ahead. They had chosen him to strike down the Eater of All. Lah, the leading Weave Speaker desired to see him before he set off.
Matarn left the Forges.
Each step bringing him closer to his destiny.
*****
White curled around my left arm. Her voice weak, “You knew Pandora was already corrupted? Why bring her then? It compounded everything.”
Matarn sat crosslegged with the spear resting in his lap. He reached out and grabbed my left hand. Bringing forth the real thing. Combining both. He thumped his chest, “Now it will remember the old wound of Unity. As for Pandora, she too has a part to play.”
Black sighed, “Of course. How else would Eliza be able to find it? To strike true. “
Matarn smiled. It reached his eyes. “Many things must be endured for the whole to live. I sacrificed the freedom of my mind and body to give Trillions upon Trillions a chance to exist.”
Everything grayed out.
Matarn moved. Making me stand along with him. “You know it, child. As I landed the initial blow. You must finish it. Thus continuing the cycles to come. Free of the shadows of decay.” Everyone else was frozen within that gray shimmer. Similar to what that future citizen did when he dropped that note within Avalon.
Matarn noticed my thoughtful expression, “Ahh. So you have experienced a time bubble before.” He pulled me along until we faced the darkened sea. The waves stalled against the hull of the ship. With hands clasped behind his back, “It is rare when the Weave allows such things. Many would pivot to escape their doom. But not you. You know this will kill you but what lies beyond that?”
I replied, “The Lights that will carry me home.”
He nodded, “Yes. Just as I waited. You will have your reward in the end.”
Color bled back into the land, air, sea, and ship. Zach blinked, astonished, “HEY! How’d you move that fast!?” Matarn laughed.
The sound carried to the stars above.
“Come back again soon. I will tell you more.”
Doc clung onto me as everything swirled.
*****
J’ino and Thomas entered their daughter’s quarters. Finding them all standing beside the side kitchen. Confusion etched on their features. Zach raced to his parents. Thomas catching the boy as he got in close, swinging him around. “Good news! We will be a permanent fixture on board the Jupiter Rising.”
J’ino said, “Along with one Mrs. Anna Preston-McQuire. She agreed to be added to the crew manifest. Jacob and Samantha as well. I don’t’ know whose more shocked. Me or your siblings.”
Lorain asked, “Who will command Project Osiris then?”
Thomas grinned, “Rear Admiral Mary Herbert-Lanis. It looks like Mr. Brookes will be her front field agent.”
*****
The Piper played his flute. The tune shaping the Weave around him. Adding threads of secret notes. Ones that would help protect Earth’s sovereignty from the battle to come. His memories were clearing. The old ways were resurging. The Weave heard his call once more. He would do better this time. Protect it. His old mentor would find it rather difficult to approach directly now. Set may have been of the first generation, those prized immortals the Unity found especially tasty, but that didn’t mean he was all-knowing. Only the Weave could even hope to approach that level.
His four-fingered hands raced across the wood.
Ichabod had given him a sweet gift. To see the monster wounded. Afraid.
These threads would help hide this precious Earth a while longer.
White would awaken within soon.
Everything would change.
*****
Anna eyed me suspiciously.
All of us were gathered within the meeting rooms aboard Jupiter.
Me, my expanded crew, my paternal grandparents, parents, the Bardaxian commander of the ship’s security, you get the idea.
Her voice was hard but did I detect some begrudging respect?
“Alright, you ridiculous flying brick of American Patriotism. What is the real story then. Be warned, I will know if you lie. My daughter made things clear.”
She handed me a slip of paper with her requests.
One: I get to record what I want.
Two: You will tell me the truth.
Three: What was that lamp Poppi gave me in that Weave thing?
Four: My husband gets to come aboard as well. Even if he doesn’t have clearance.
“I’ll go with you to grab Mr. McQuire. If Hilary has the house bugged Void Walker style. I'll be able to feel it.”
Anna crossed her legs and continued, “My whole life has been a lie.”
Samantha sent a message.
///Et All: Let her vent, please. It's my only request.///
Anna drolled on like she was having a conversation with herself.
“You all fed into that. I only saw the shapes as clumps of darkness. Always hovering over people like leering gargoyles.”
Mom’s expression was painfully neutral with its politeness.
>>Mom, breathe. It will be ok.<<
She clutched my hand. With vise level intensity. Dad’s hand was experiencing the same thing. He even moved in closer to wrap his other arm around her waist. All while seated with an attentive expression. He can play very good poker. My empathy senses were screaming, “Let’ her get it out. Validation is key here. Solutions can come later.”
I brought up Mr. McQuire’s profile with my free hand.
He worked on Holo-tapes. Music, Entertainment. Even restoring old film reels to other formats. Ran his various INet channels towards critiquing new releases and retrospectives. Theodore “Teddy” McQuire.
Anna took a drag on the cigarette before her. Her gaze wandering off into the distance.
“I didn’t understand what really circled you. It kept feeding into my fear and paranoia.”
Poppi phased through the table. His words reaching my mind.
Her ability was so potent I had to temporarily dilute it with special teas.
She twitched, “Poppi?” He turned and floated to her. Placing a hand on her shoulder.
I said, “I can hear him because of the White Defender belt. She is a very old first one. Along with the Black. They leave behind an aura that Unity craves.”
I pointed at him, “I think that lantern was symbolic. You can see him now right?”
She replied, “Yes. But why was I seeing shadows around you all?”
Poppi came back. Placing a hand on my throat, asking permission. I gave it.
His voice flowed outward, “They are not shadows but souls protecting these people. Many congregate around them and you because you all are linchpins. They are the souls of previous cycle Light Shamans and current holy users. Those who couldn’t travel to the Ouro to be reborn until Eliza and the Golden Redeemers drove out the corruption.”
Images whirled by.
Eden Earth’s Ouroborous shined within the void. A light to guide them home.
Anna grumbled, “So why even have that fake Area 51?
Poppi replied, “To hide us from Unity. TO make it believe we aren’t what we really are. The reborn First Creation of the Weave. What happens here affects the whole Multiverse.”
Anna’s expression twisted. Not with malice but with confusion.
“Why did you have to die Poppi? How can I even help? Touch things? Get impressions like something out of an old Horror vid?”
His voice gained strength. “I had to waylay them. TO give you time to use the cross on the Baby Stealer. SO that Eliza’s parents would know it by its mark. The flashes you saw around the Banner were of an old thread. In which the Void Walkers and Unity won complete domination.”
Her eyes widened as we all saw the aborted timeline playout. She was relaying this for everyone! Endless copies of Dexter and I laid waste to everything. Consumed by the Brood Factories of the Void Walkers. Because they had managed to steal our material when we were newly born. Anna sobbed, “Oh God.”
I raised my voice. Poppi released his grip on my vocal cords. It was only me now.
“See? You weren’t crazy. The Weave was warning you.”
///SM to EM: Thank you. It's exactly what she needed.///
I turned to Eddie.
His face composed.
“Eddie, I want you with us as well. In case there are even more hidden traps from the Crazy Lady of A51.”
As we eased out of the berthing ring, Anna reached out to touch my face.
She didn’t need to say anything. Small steps.
Old wounds could still heal in time.
Whatever impression she got made her look away. Not in dismissal but deep thought.
McQuire Household
New Ashbury (North Wood Residences)
February 8th, 2104
Teddy arched his back. The pop of his spine a welcome relief.
Settling deeper into the VR chair.
Wondering what Anna had found with that new Area 51 lead. While most doubted her he did not. Her hunches were wild but they panned out in odd ways. He had a minor demi ability to calculate the odds. Whenever he looked at his wife, she practically glowed, which made him love her more.
He picked up the holo of them at the park. His blue eyes narrowing.
Chances of Progeny increased by a factor of 12%
He whistled a jaunty tune.
It was his lucky day!
He’d never turn down the opportunity to make her happy.
*****
We teleported into the park adjacent to Anna’s home. Civilian clothing of course.
I keyed in on her husband’s heartbeat.
It was steady and strong.
My nose bled as we turned the corner.
*****
The doorbell rang. Teddy walked towards it. His demi power going nuts. He turned, heading deeper into the house. The percentage meter indicating certain death lowering as he made his way to the personal armory. Whatever was behind that front door wanted him gone.
Permanently.
He commed his wife but the line was filled with static.
As he scanned the guns one stood out to his chance meter. It had been a gift from Anna’s daughter. He holstered it. The markings reshaping it into a rifle. Civilian issue but one he was familiar with. Hunting grav caliber.
Whatever was out there would regret invading his home.
*****
Hilary Brookes waited.
Her human facade more composed than ever.
She would take what that woman loved and crush it in front of her.
Such was the fate of those who proved useless.
Issue 15: Here
Issue 17: Here
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