2044
Allison Fae
The white expanse filled the horizon as far as the eye could see. The mist that clung to the ground from the snow had since vanished as the sun above their heads. The temperature around them had risen dramatically as they traveled down the east coast. Out behind them sat a tunnel that led down under the surface. Allison was suspect of its nature, but now seeing the lands out in front of her she had a feeling it was going to be their intended route after all.
“Dark places with the rest of the rats, is that it?” Zane asked.
“You can try to cross if you wish. I don’t need to take a second look at how hot those waves are sizzling to know we’d be cooked alive trying to cross.”
“You’re going to so quickly ignore the treasure you recovered and the power that emanates from it?”
“No, not even slightly. Whatever shield it can prevent would not ease us from the blistering heat. I would prefer to travel cool if possible.”
“Well then I guess I’ll lead the way on top. Pain isn’t a problem for me up here. I mean, it’s not my body,” he laughed.
“That’s quite gruesome.”
“If it wasn’t I wouldn’t have any interest in it, I’m afraid.”
Allison moved to answer, but she was interrupted, “I’m not afraid, that was another Zane-ism,” he chuckled.
“Right,” Allison sighed, well, I assume we’ll meet each other on the other side.”
“And if I don’t see you there? You’re not going to make me backtrack for your goodies, are you?”
“You can try if you want. I won’t for you.”
He matched her gaze and he nodded as two rear tendrils lifted him off the ground. The third extended over his head like a scorpion’s tail and he turned, launching himself into the distance. She knew he was going to make it to the end first. She also knew he wasn’t going to go farther than her. Not now. It was a serious challenge for him.
He desired a total and full defeat—and that excluded head starts by any and all counts. He wanted her at her best and that is why he hadn’t pushed for the Red Monolith. He secretly wanted her to collect as much power as possible so that he could create the greatest enemy he could take down.
It seemed so simple to connect the dots now—this creature was nothing more than an enemy to be. She needed to keep that in mind. Friends didn’t exist any longer. It would be irresponsible to think otherwise.
She turned and made for the tunnel. The exterior looked like it had been roughly carved and refined over a period of years. The path down seemed to arc in a winding path. As she headed down she noticed it was noticeably cooler, but the light similarly left as she reached the pitch-black bottom. If she closed her eyes she could feel her way around—seeing with her eyes closed—the depths of the walls and even so minute the details of the insects that crawled in the dirt. She felt the increased focus from the crystal in her possession. She took a deep breath and began walking through the darkness. She dared not pick up her pace as her senses began to blur and spill into one another when going too fast.
She stopped—something was on the edge of her feeling. She opened her eyes and felt a familiar smell drew her head to the right. A face emerged from the shadows—but just a face. Lilly stared out toward her; a worried look that slowly melted as the skin dripped down to the shadows. Her form bent and broke and Allison took a recoiled step back.
Two figures were off in the distance—the closer had their back to her. Their arm was raised in a vaguely familiar position. She approached slowly—noticing where it had been pulling the figures from.
Lilly had stood with her hand outstretched and across the darkness was Ashley Evans. Her body was raised in the air—her arms limp beside her. The scene was frozen as she approached. She stopped to stare at the bodies as they were over twenty years ago.
Lilly’s head slowly turned toward Allison and her eyes turned a dark crimson. “You run away from a power you claim to have conquered. You run away into the depths of your heart until nothing can find you.”
A lump caught in her throat as she heard the voice spill out of Lilly’s mouth. It wasn’t human. It was deep and beastly. Ashley’s own demonic timbre joined as they repeated the chant again. Allison turned to see the whites of her eyes have gone red—the pupils shooting up into her skull.
“You’re not anything more than a ghost of the damned,” Allison bit down hard. “You’re from the Monolith, aren’t you?”
She grabbed at the crystal without looking away from the figures and felt a bright hot burning in the palm of her hand. Its light reflected in the false-Lilly’s eyes.
A word rung closely behind Allison’s own eyes—it was a familiar word.
Elemantic.
“I am memory given form by your intense emotions,” the voice called out. “You lock yourself away and yet it gives me the perfect place to hide and to be—to gain strength and through me be your downfall. I am beyond your experience—beyond your time.”
“You existed in the time before…didn’t you? You came from that old universe—that same one Alex came from?” She had called out Sakonna’s old name as if it were an old friend’s—so simply. And yet, she noticed a reaction. Each of the figures heads had darted toward her and stared daggers toward her.
They fell into the darkness and a boy took their place. He looked to be about sixteen—seventeen at the most. He looked up to her—his eyes were the same blood red, but they glowed with the burning fire of the Monolith.
“I am memory. I contain memory. I seek memory.”
She felt a surging presence in her mind—flashes of a world long ago passed and she saw this same boy when he existed on Earth. It was a time much different to now—much different to the world of her own childhood. His name was Devon Campton and he was childhood friends with Alex Sharpe. He got involved with a bad group—a cult that desired to ascend to a higher plane of existence. You didn’t want that, did you? What kind of terrors have you wrought on the universe?
“You still know so little about the memory of this world,” Devon said, his eyes still seeing past her—through her. “There is another shade you have been blind to. Another memory.”
He vanished and she was outside—somewhere high up in the sky. Outside of the planet, outside of time. She is standing in a dense library filled with rows and rows of books lining the walls. A window on the opposite wall reveals a starry backdrop—but space outside is a long-since foreign black and blue void. The stars shine brilliantly from the metal hull the compound exists from. Allison doesn’t know how, but she’s arrived at the edge of the old universe.
Another shade you have been blind to—a memory.
Two figures stand opposing one another, and Allison notices a complete record of the universe’s events recorded on every single book spanning the shelves that surround them. She saw based on the two figures’ posture they were casually comfortable with one another. The rightmost one stood moderately tall wearing non-descript clothes and had dark hair kept short on the sides. He looked noticeably younger, but this fit the description of the force that she had sensed as the being at the center of everything—Z-One. Here he looked like anyone else—it was off-putting.
But it was not he who stole her breath away—but the man on the left. He looked to be middle aged if not a little younger—dirty blond hair hung carelessly at the nape of his neck—his eyes were different colors and in those eyes she reflected an image she hasn’t thought of in a very, very long time. She saw him for one moment and knew that this…was her father. This is the being that would—soon enough—become the Child of the Night known as Ormus. He would take the form of a large gecko when on the new Planet Earth—and he would deliver an infant Ally Fae to her first string of temporary homes. Issachar…he had said her father existed out there in the world and was this some final extension of his will? This crystal—
She wasn’t holding the crystal—she wasn’t holding anything. The lance was gone, she panicked for a second, but she felt them on her body even if she couldn’t see them. Her vision was being overwritten down in the darkness. She felt a hushing presence—perhaps from Devon—to not worry about her physical connections.
Devon…Issachar, that was your name, wasn’t it? You are just like Sakonna. You all are the same. You were people…living people with names and stories of your own.
Father…what was your name? Who were you?
Allison took a step closer and heard they were in the middle of a conversation. She didn’t know if she could be seen, but she figured it would be best to not take the chance.
“You have to forgive my doubt, but it sounds…well, I’m going to be honest. It sounds crazy,” her father said. His tone had said they have had plenty of talks like this plenty of times before. Just what power did this other person have—to be seen as this figurehead of their movement?
She leaned in closer to parse his answer.
“Would it really be something I came up with if it wasn’t?” Z-One offered a laugh.
Her father sighed, but it was a sound of acceptance rather than irritation. “As fair a point as that may be it doesn’t change my own. I need to hear it from you. I need to know you’re going to see it through.”
“Have you no faith?” Z-One countered.
“I think we both know that answer. Faith is best left to the dogs. Come on, spill it. I can’t bare the anticipation.”
Z-One chuckled, offering a wry smile. “I see. You’re right. You know, you’re closer to my own mind than I think sometimes. Okay, let’s take a seat first. It really is a lot.”
Ormus walked across toward a counter-top and went behind, bending down. “You want the usual?”
Z-One shook his head. “No, that’s fine. If you want to, I can wait.”
Ormus nodded and he bent down out of sight. Allison saw Z-One look out the window—a contemplative look on his face. Glasses sat on the bridge of his nose and behind them those blue eyes were thinking a storm. He wondered the universe and yet his thoughts were unavailable to her.
Ormus returned with two drinks in his hand. “Brought you one anyway, don’t forget to tip.”
A shallow smile crossed Z-One’s face. He accepted the glass and the two of them stared deeply at one another. It was an invitation to drop heavy news, and so he did. “So, you’re going to be the only one that remembers. You might have already guessed that seeing as nobody else is here with us having this discussion now.”
Ormus took a deep breath. It was measured, but she saw how the light in his eyes was taking the realization.
“I assumed…but I also feared. Is there truly no saving their memories? I can’t think in good conscience of wasting so much life.”
Z-One sat firm and spoke in a measured tone—it had been rehearsed privately, no doubt. “We’re going to have to be patient with them. ICARUS only gives us so much leeway. I can only bring you fully over. The others will be with you, physically. They’ll be with us, together…it’ll just take some careful planning to reunite their memories over.
“Only gives us so much…You made it. What do you mean, leeway?” Ormus was letting his emotions get the better of him—this was why Z-One had practiced his own words. He knew he would react this way.
“I may have had the idea, but I think we both know that it wasn’t me who made it.”
“Well, technically,” he retorted. “But don’t you have the power to fix that? You surely must have the ability to make it so they could all make it through.”
“If I could affect things on such a granular level we wouldn’t be here in the first place. I would have been able to save her.”
Ormus sighed. “Lindsey, right? Listen, Andy’s made his peace with it. Sure, it’s taken…a long time, but everything worked out, right?”
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Z-One made a sad sort of smile. Allison could empathize with that look intimately. “That’s the thing I like about you. You always without fail come back around to being the optimist. Even after I put you through so much. I wish I could say that I felt the same way. To this day I regret her end. I regret the pain I caused; the pain that was caused to me. I didn’t make her end—I simply saw it and recorded what I saw.”
“We all miss her, but people die. That’s life.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Z-One said.
Ormus paused and looked down to his drink—a golden drink that now looked as appetizing as swamp water. “So, we’re really doing this, then? We’re really restarting all of creation just to undo this one mistake?”
“Surely you know what lengths you will do for the ones that you love. I love all of you like my own. I will do anything to make things right. Is Devon ready?”
Ormus sighed. “Nearing. And you’re sure he’ll make the right choices?”
“I know him like I know myself—like I know all of you. It’s like I said. I see things. I record them. They happen. He’ll make the right choices. ICARUS will install a new universe—as we are now will be overwritten, and we’ll immediately start our new plans. And then eventually…”
“Eventually…?”
“I…admit I haven’t seen that far yet. I have seen scratchings—moments. I’ve seen fragments that I believe I can connect to what I desire, but if I’m being perfectly honest…I can’t see it all. I won’t see it all without them.”
Ormus looked at his companion and cocked his head. “You’re back to riddle-speak. Them?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just…thinking out loud. You’ll see them, I’m sure. I don’t have all the details yet, but they will be here, and they will help me see more clearly.”
“If you’re sure,” Ormus said, taking a swig of the drink in the glass. “I have no choice but to follow.”
“You always had a choice, Gavin. But I know which one it will be.”
Gavin. Your name is Gavin. That was more than she had ever known about him before. She was going to race with theories but he—Gavin—interrupted.
“If that’s all then I’m going to go now. I…have someplace I wish to say good-bye to. If this really will be the end.
“Of course, tell her I said hello. I’m sure your memories will remember her fondly.”
Her?! Allison jumped up and started running toward her father. He turned his back and disappeared into darkness as the world around was sucked up into a void itself at the horizon point. A voice behind her echoed louder and louder until it pulled her attention away from the void—shifting black then white then repeating. It was Devon’s voice…but it wasn’t just his. There was another voice she had heard recently…it was Alex’s. They were intermingling, echoing upon one another—shifting and taking new form as the final sounds of the old universe.
“Roland…was my—Dromedan threat...ICARUS…and restart the old world…carnival where it all began…” A voice spiraled through her mind and echoed from one end to another.
From darkness that surrounded them all she saw a body borne from the dark—it was Devon. He screamed and fell backward and was breathing heavily.
Appearing next to him and lending a hand was a shocking appearance—it was Gavin—her father. But he was much younger—at least half the age he had been before—but this had taken place after the scene she had just seen. And yet, his visage seemed to be alternating between the two—time was ripping itself apart here at the end of the universe.
“I had hoped it wouldn’t have come to this. I tried my best to steer us away from the…gruesome nature of it all, but we do have a failsafe.”
“Failsafe?” Devon asked. He reached up and grabbed Gavin’s hand, pulling himself up.
“Our time is short,” Gavin said. “Cross is going to destroy everything out there. There is nothing that can be done to stop them now. Our only chance is for you to make a choice…C’mere. Follow me.”
Gavin led Devon down a set of stairs—but to Allison it looked like they just walked deeper into darkness. It was possible Devon was seeing something entirely different, but she had a feeling—no, she knew Gavin was seeing it as she was now.
“What’s this…? Is this another of your simulations?” Devon asked.
She looked and saw a machine standing alone in the darkness. Three clawed legs supported the central crystalline column with nine embedded crystals in its surface each of a different color. ICARUS was branded on the side running upward. A single pod was connected with heavy cables.
“A machine I made in another life. I fear its our last hope. You have to connect with it and make your choice. After that…”
“Why can’t you do it?” Devon asked.
Gavin laughed nervously, there was a boyish hint of mischief in his eyes. “Because I’d make the wrong one.” He placed a hand on Devon’s shoulder. “I want you to know I’m proud of you, Devon. If that means anything. You’ve come a long way, and if our fates were decided by me, then you’d be forgiven.”
Allison stood there staring at her father and felt her own heart break—it felt like he had been directly talking to her.
“I…I’m sorry Dad…” she let out.
In that moment she saw flashes of his life past her eyes. She saw him more than just her father. He had been heartbroken over the loss of his best friend Andrew and the woman he loved—Iris. That fact threatened his own sympathies, but he knew what he had to do.
Devon nodded and turned toward the great machine. After turning his back to Gavin he realized he was alone in the room. He took in a deep breath and began. He heard a voice echo throughout the darkness—Allison watched him inside that pod as his body doubled in the darkness—his sitting form was watching memories of his own life and answering questions to his own morals. He neared the end when he came across the most important question.
An old man gives a young girl a pretty stone at a local carnival , and as fate would have it, she gives this pretty stone to a boy she likes moments later. This singular event becomes the crux of the universe and sets it on a path toward its current destruction. You, a derelict, wandering soul have the chance to not give this girl the pretty stone and avoid all of the catastrophe and despair. You will however erase all of the joy and love that this world has experienced to replace it with a new existence. All of the kindness and the sorrow, the gain and the loss. Everything shall be reset back to zero.
Will you change your fate?
“Yes, I am going to change my fate,” Devon said. “I am going to fix everything. I am going to save this world.”
And just like that, ICARUS whirred to life. The darkness started in motion and the scene of the boy in the pod was wiped away as cleanly as wind to a single sand on a beach.
Devon woke up in the black void, slowly.
“You did it, I knew you could.”
Gavin once again held out an outstretched arm, this time he did not flicker between his older and younger self. He was the same as Allison had seen him in the library.
“I almost didn’t…” Devon said—out of breath once again. “Once I saw her there…I almost…”
“Where am I?” Alex looked around uncertain. She was the same age as Devon was—she had a remarkable similarity to Lilly—but she wore her hair down straight. Her eyes were hazel, and her lips were thinner. She looked scared—overwhelmed.
“Alex…” Devon didn’t know how to feel. He looked like there were a million words behind his soft cry.
“I don’t know if I want to be here,” Alex said, a spot of horror overtaking her tone.
“It’s okay,” Gavin said. “We just need to take a second to get ourselves together and then we’ll—”
“Agghk!” Alex called out, she doubled over in intense pain. “What’s…what’s happening?” Her face began to shift—it started to melt like how Lilly’s had when she first entered the tunnel.
“Alex?! What’s going on?” Devon cried out, but he similarly contorted in pain. “Listen to me, we’re going to be okay. We don’t have to fight anymore. We—HKKKKKKK” He fell to his knees as his hands reached for his face which looked like it had wanted to evacuate his skull.
Gavin reached down to grab Devon and hoist a shoulder underneath to help him up. “Come on, we got this. Take it easy. It’s okay, we just need to keep moving. We have to keep going until we get to the shifting lights over there…easy, right? Come on, one step…” he worked his way over to Alex and hoisted her up on his other side, he could feel their strength draining but he pulled himself up to his feet. Their screams had shifted into uncomfortable moans and their bodies felt white hot.
“Come on. We just need to make it to the other side. Everybody’s waiting for you. Come on! We got this.”
“G-Gavin…did I mess up?” Devon cried out—his face drooped.
“No, no, we did it right. That’s not possible. You saved them. Don’t forget that. Please don’t forget that. I’m proud of you. Just keep breathing, we have to make it.”
Alex lumbered one step further and lurched to her knees, “I don’t know if I can go oOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON—” her body was ripped into two—a white scaly arm broke free from her chest and a glowing white dragon with an eviscerated center clawed itself from her ribcage. Her remaining body melted into a dark form that Allison knew all too well—the black scales overtook her flesh and her bones started melting into waves—the form of Sakonna she had known before her recent demise at the hands of Zane.
“SHIT!” Gavin yelled out, refocusing his weight to cover Devon and help him keep his balance, but the reaction continued in Devon’s body. He tore in two and a crimson red wolf leapt through the air—its claws tearing the void as it dashed toward the new universe—Devon’s body graying to a fine golden wolf shape—Issachar. He screamed Alex’s name as the last of his humanity left him and together the two beasts left Gavin’s side—chasing after their others—their Elemantics.
“No…no no no this is not happening. We just had to keep moving. We just had to—”
A shining blue hawk shot past Gavin—almost too close to touch. It had caught up with the others ahead and he felt a new break in his heart.
“Andy…?”
The others floated above and traveled below him—eleven in total with eleven husks following behind. Gavin recognized every single one of them and looked back toward where they all traveled—the white at the end of the void.
“Hello Gavin, you have done well. I am so proud of you.”
It was the voice of Z-One from beyond the barrier to the new universe.
“I thought we were saving them.”
“We are,” he said calmly.
“How…is this saving? I thought they were just going to forget…I thought…”
“Gavin, calm down. You’re my point of contact in the new universe. You’re going to be my right hand. You’re here. I needed to find a way to convert the rest of them over into the new world. You know how audiences are—they tire of a world after a certain amount of time. I needed to find a way to bring you all over in a way the new world would accept you.”
“What does that mean for us?” Gavin cried out. “Why can’t we just go back?”
“I’m working on that. It’s going to take some time, but for now the memories of the others have broken free from their bodies. That’s a risk I had to take since they’re no longer a part of the original canon. Something had to give. Our goal is going to be reforming them all. You get me?”
“You mean we can bring them back?” Gavin looked up, wiping the tears from his face.
“Just like they were.”
“How do we do that? Where do we start?”
“First, I need to draw them out. They prosper in stories. I need new worlds for them to inhabit. I do need to warn you though—they are not going to come easily. They are going to be searching out the Monoliths.
“What are the Monoliths?”
“After the world ended ICARUS shattered into pieces. Each of those pieces is now the heart of a world—the heart of a new story. Each of those stories is where we’ll find the memories of the others—the Elemantics.
“They shouldn’t be too hard to find, right?” Gavin began. “ICARUS used to give off very specific frequencies, right? We should be able to track those.”
“As a whole, yes. But it’s harder when they’re separated. They can take the form of other objects. They desire to be hidden the same way your own heart desires to be on the inside of your chest instead of outside it.”
“Reconstruct ICARUS, reform the others, then what?”
“We go back. But right now the top priority is preserving and searching out the Monoliths. The Elemantics are going to try to destroy them with everything they’ve got. They’re emotional beings, and I think you know the true power of emotional energy. They aren’t the only obstacle, of course. There’s going to be no shortage of beings that wish to claim the powers of the Monoliths for themselves should they learn of their existence. You must outpower their efforts.
“What happens if they get the Monoliths first?”
“Let’s pray that doesn’t happen, Gavin,” Z-One said.
“Okay, but what should we do with their bodies—they’re…not human anymore.”
“I’ve gathered them over here. I’m going to give them some temporary selves so they don’t fall apart at the seams—they’re only waves at this point. You may see some familiar traits run through but do not be satisfied in thinking they are their old selves. We must reform them.”
“Okay…I can do that. And until then, what are you going to do?”
“I’ve got to get to work. I’ve got things I need to create. I’ll meet back up with you soon, okay? Come to this side and sit by the fire. I think they’ll need you over here.”
The others had faded to complete black and Allison knew she was by herself again. At least, the only Devon that was near her was the one she had first seen in the cave.
“You’re Issachar’s Elemantic. His memories of the other world. I was thinking of this all backwards…” she said, gripping the Red Monolith tightly. “You were a half of him. And…now you’re the only surviving half. He gave his life to help me.
Devon was silent.
“You cared very deeply for Alex—just like how Issachar cared very deeply about Sakonna…I think that bond was strong enough to transcend what you went through.
“Memory…hurts. It is sad when remembered. It reminds you of what you failed to have.”
Allison thought on this and looked back down to Devon. “You’re here, but you’re not aiming to take the Monolith. Why is that?”
“A memory without a brain will simply fade into obscurity,” he said.
A second image faded in next to her—but it was corrupted—but instantly she knew it was Alex. At least, the part of her that existed as her Monolith in the Lance of Longinus.
“memories fractured…from the whole meant to die.”
Allison held the Red Monolith tight in one hand and felt a warmth from the Black Monolith fragment in her right. “I’m not going to let you two die. I’ll find a way to bring you back—there’s nothing I can’t do if I put my mind to it. If I need to collect these things to kickstart ICARUS back into life—I’ll do it.”
The two memories offered what little of a smile they could hold. They faded from view, and she felt a warmth coming from her lance—it was a warmth she hadn’t felt in a very long time. It reassured her that everything was going to be okay. In it she looked toward her goal—the end of the tunnel was no longer pitch black to her. She saw complexity through the darkness and she took off at a run.
“Kicking it old school, aren’t you, love?”