Sophie was the only human, aside from the band of musicians warming up in the real world ready to face the Sixth Attraction. They gentle handful seemed immune from the time hold and the warping effect of the fabric of the Multiverse. Georges, like so many had refuse to connect to the computer and share his Rho waves with the collective power mankind shared over the computer system. But freewill was no longer his and in a strange twist unique to Bias now complete in the Multiverse, a door had opened and the fusion between realities had forced him to step into the digital world.
The chair he normally occupied in the real world was empty, it was at the left of Sophie. The large man had simply stepped out of this world to touch his creation in the digital world. As a father, he had refused to watch Francois, he now stood silent next to Laurent and the President. The trio was floating between realities. Human consciousness was not frozen, it watched powerless this show.
So close to the Sixth Attraction, reality itself was morphing into something only the Attractor appeared to comprehend. This made the escapade down into the Valles, pale in comparison. Invisible but tangible to all, forces of energy were fighting outside.
Floated the Dot high in the martian sky, it created around it light. The Solar System was filled with long red ropes of power the size of a giant octopus. The red lines wrapped themselves around green energy forced and bound by the power. There were creaks and pain deep under the world. This was a struggle of giants, a large tentacular sea creature fighting a shark biting for its survival.
Time was gone, instead were deep changes.
Sophie had been given all power over this reality and over both the neighboring dream and digital worlds. Like many others, she felt this absolute power it moved around her but at a scale too large to see or comprehend. The sun, as if superfluous stopped burning, it was extinguished. But there were still minutes of light before the darkness would hit mars.
Of all the things Sophie could do, she opened a hand and made Oscar, her toy, materialize. She knew in her heart had she wished her father to return.
The Attractor felt energy and she needed to test these powers. She moved a hand and behind it the Multiverse moved. She took a deep breath and absorbed slowly the reality around her. “This is it,” she told Liam. “It begins.” The Oldest was scared, she knew it and he remained silent.
But this wasn’t a dream or a science fiction book. Much of mankind was there, voyeurs recently evolved to a wiser social understanding thanks to her. She looked to her right and wished for the rabbit from the strange world of Alice in Wonderland. It, commanded appeared. As quickly as she made him be, she waved him off. Like a dream, it phased out of reality.
Science was gone, it now was will. She alone knew the Multiverse wasn’t this simple.
“Liam, we have it,” again he refused to speak.
The young girl was ready.
It could come.
It would come.
Turning her gaze to the right, she looked at the stage where LO was preparing to play. The band was oddly functional, animated by a will of purpose. The digital creature, Marilyn, had tried the oldest trick in the book, to have her fall in love with the singer, her idol. A normal young teen might have fallen for it the way Francois could have given Marilyn pause, but Sophie had cleaned her mind and just spent years with Liam getting ready for the Attraction. She knew better.
But who was laughing now, Sophie had twisted the game around and given Marilyn regret of causing the end of Worlds. It was all in the best of war, Marilyn wanted her father to live and desperately needed you young girl to find a reason to let this world be.
The singer was there, feet from her and to the young girl, even after decades of mental training, their eyes met and she felt a deeper bond. The singer was humming tunes and she could not draw her eyes from his lips. The Asian man was dreamy and looked at her in awe. Sophie knew there was no time for temptation.
She was the only one left able to think and act. As Liam explained, she had a job to do, even if it was one where she witnessed the end of the Multiverse and refused to act, she would do so alone.
It was her time to act.
“Play,” she commanded the band. They needed no more.
Marilyn and the President both figured if the Attractor cared enough about earth, her father and LO, she would find a way to save this reality and those she loved. They were dead wrong.
Music was the core of this power. The notes began to fill her. She closed her eyes. The void as the fabric of the Multiverse moved. She knew what was going on as outside a third color force began to push. There was a giant battle of red and green lines, like long tentacular tips of a sea monster. But around the girl, she felt were waves, the energy of these people who stood ready to help her save the Multiverse. It felt and looked like gold.
Sophie had always felt in her heart, like Alice, she lived in the strange world. Her connection with the world was different. As she stood in the large Electoral Center, the Attractor looked at the hundred of sleeping players lifeless and connected using a sensor plate on their necks. As billions of humans on the vanishing earth, each was lost in the digital collective world.
A countdown to the Sixth Attraction continued down on each screen. Humans, strangely watched Sophie through the television interface from a distance. She looked around but more at the fabric of life and space. Everything seemed different as reality was shifting. Energy was being drawn here both as the computer power escalated under her feet and by the Multiverse stung by this pain.
The notes began. Sophie felt, deep inside herself something more. She knew and loved the song. She was not passively looking and drinking the music, it was falling into her, fueling her. With each word, more power surfaced, a different type and power color. It was gold, sparkling.
Sophie moved gently her hand and behind it a streak of energy dissipated as if she was moving in water. She smiled and using a scintilla of her power, the waves sparkled with rainbow colors.
“Liam,” she queried out loud.
“Yes Sweet one, what is it?”
“This power, is it mine?”
“Sophie, you now are both cause and consequence. What you will, is. You are now, for this short period of time a goddess. You have the power to fix what the Multiverse desires fixed but remember, it wants and desires something that could not be achieved by any other means. You must do what cannot be done. You have one chance, but I have no clue what must be done.”
“Let me help,” said the voice of Marilyn.
“This will not be easy.”
“I can barely imagine. It picked you darling, you. Be yourself, nothing more or less.”
Sophie like a symphony conductor raised both hands as the music continued to power her. Outside the flow of power shifted.
She willed the metal pieces on the skull of each person in the room to vanish and of course they stood no chance. Slowly, everyone free of the connection woke up from the digital world returning to this strange reality and to time. Sophie waved the other hand and everyone was immediately standing up and fully awake. They were dressed at their best, for a gala. Those who earned medals wore them.
LO needed a live audience of more than one.
A cup of champagne or any beverage they preferred appeared in hand. They were the audience ready to enjoy the musical performance.
What ever was this end of the world, it required an audience. Sophie had really been given the ultimate power. She played like a magician sculpting this reality to her every wish. Everyone was looking her way in awe. Sophie moved another hand and hundreds of people appeared in the room. These were missing loved ones of each of the players. When the adults saw their children, old parents or missing loved ones, the group erupted in hugs. To some, long dead parents were there from the afterlife.
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The reunion was joyful but there was little time and everyone felt this was their moment to enjoy. They were nothing more than elaborate stage extras. Behind Sophie on the screens, the countdown to the end of the world reached ten minutes.
It was ominous.
People here turned and stood in awe looking at the Attractor alone feet in front of the stage between Laurent’s cradle and the band. Her father’s cripple body rested there, deformed his mind lost in the digital world. She raised a hand over him as if she was preparing to return his body to health, she easily could.
A simple wish and he would return. But then, showing incredible self control, she closed the palm of her hand to prevent the Rho waves from flowing in this way to him. She was refusing to use the power to indulge herself. Humans in the room deserved loved ones, she did not. Everyone was emotional understanding the sacrifice she needed to do. Her hand seemed to lightly tremble as if the power refused to sleep.
“No,” she said to the gold power. She pulled the hand back, bent over Laurent’s weak body, kissed his forehead and placed the toy next to him in the cradle. “I love you,” she said as she the put both hands up over him. From the digital world, Laurent cried.
She turned to the band, “My father’s favorite song is Beauty and the Beast, do you know it?”
The band members needed no more. They were happy to be given instructions. Everyone was standing there, feet from the touching family reunion and struggled with their own emotions. Without missing a beat, the drummer began and the group followed. For some reason, music lived at the heart of this Sixth Attraction. Music was part of the dimensions of the Multiverse.
A visible flow of power poured out and filled this little form. Like a battery, she was charging his father with part of her power. Then she stopped filling him. In the room, adults watched in awe. Sophie defined the role of a true savior. She was better, wiser and if anyone deserved her family back, it was this girl thrown into this convergence against her will.
The band played as Sophie savored each word. She looked down at her disfigured dad. In the digital reality, Laurent stood next to Emilio ready to play. He fell to his knees unable to stop crying as the music resonated in every dimension of the Multiverse. The power was everywhere and was filling Marilyn’s reality.
The Sixth Attraction was complex and there was little time to absorb it all.
Then there was a glitch, not unlike a digital glitch brought on by a lack of power in the world itself. Sophie teared up looking down at Laurent. The moment her tear touched her father’s body there was a shock in the Multiverse. In the room, aged children were standing next to their parents, latched in like a flood survivor given a floating ring. Sophie was touching Laurent’s head as if she was sending him energy. The gold power began to flow.
“More,” she whispered. This was her show and waiving her wrist one more time, appeared behind them a chair and the sleeping body of the President in it. The large Mexican was connected and remained standing next to her father inside the game. Both Laurent and Emilio were ready for the digital portion of the Sixth Attraction.
The clock barely able to move as time tried, like the heartbeat of a dying man to stay stable. It could not. The clock reached eight minutes. Laurent’s body began to shimmer.
“What are you doing,” asked Liam as Sophie left her father’s immediate side and walked to the connected Mexican who had appeared there.
“This was never about one,” she replied.
She raised both hands above his head and the same way she had gifted power to her father, the flow returned draining her. She closed her eyes, “Louder,” she yelled to the band. The did. They played, the music powered the girl which in turn she sent to Emilio.
She opened her eyes and looked in the distance at the void. “Everyone, please give them strength.” Humanity knew it needed to help. Everyone, as if animated by a desire to end this nonsense felt love and compassion for the young girl. “Please,” she added.
There was another bag deep in the Multiverse.
From a distance, mars was the nexus of a strange power. From deep within the digital world, the network of energy from earth frozen in space and time, energy jumped out, travelled the millions of miles from earth to mars and fueled the Attractor.
On mars, as the Rho waves arrived from earth in what looked like a blast, the sand creatures, Sophie’s new race was ready. The creatures floating feet from the ground gave a command and the batteries at the heart of mars released the stored power. It came up to the surface to join the rest of the power.
Sophie smiled at the kindness, “Thanks.” She closed her eyes and filled Emilio with Rho waves. In the digital reality and on mars, his body began to shine to power up like Laurent feet from him. She knew he would. On the screen, Marilyn returned from her escapade between both finalists. They both were shining. It made her happy.
Sophie’s power, if possible, kept increasing. She had drawn herself out. Her true power remained. They were Avatars.
Once finished, Sophie looked up.
Invisible but tangible energy moved and twisted.
The Attractor was allowed to listen to the performance and run the clock of the end of the Multiverse down to six minutes. This was not unlike a New Year’s Eve countdown. Sophie stood on the stage majestic and serene. She was different on multiple levels.
When the song finally ended, Sophie looked up and spoke to the world who was connected via the computer and the few present.
“Marilyn’s power grows on an exponential scale. She is becoming more and more power in a way which is very hard to explain to humans. But thank you for connecting and sharing with Marilyn the Rho waves you can spare. What is happening will be explained hopefully by Marilyn in her game introduction. In minutes, the pain inflicted by Marilyn’s violations of the time paradox will be such, the Multiverse will simple burn and die,” she waved her hand as if she was standing in dense liquid. The fabric of the Multiverse was getting denser by the second.
The band and humanity was silent waiting for her words.
“Marilyn,” she asked a screen. The face of the blond appeared, but she seemed tired and strained. Sweat was pearling on her forehead. “Are you okay?”
“No,” she struggled to speak. “You must hurry.”
Sophie looked at the emptiness. “I really have until this countdown clock reaches zero to act, but the real question is, should I even get involved? As you have seen, Marilyn is not who we think she is. She desires our survival at the cost of her own life. What if the same can be said for her future self. Humans play with things they do not understand. We cannot know the future and why this all happens. I was chosen for one reason only. I alone can and might let this clock hit zero. I don’t mind dying and letting this reality lapse.”
The clock hit five minutes. On each screen reappeared Marilyn standing hand in hand with the mathematician and her father Georges. Behind the trio stood both finalists.
Marilyn wondered what would come next. Sophie just added, “This is, if you have to pick and end to the world and this Multiverse, the best way to go.”
***
The Multiverse wasn’t done.
The Multiverse’s fabric was twisting and bending around a single pivot, a young girl in the Cold. The computer and the entire Electoral game was straining to remain online.
“Please begin,” asked Sophie. On the screen Georges was holding a frail version of Marilyn. Next to them the two finalists were shining in gold.
“Interesting twist young girl,” began Marilyn. “How much real time on this clock do you need, how long can we play,” asked the lady to the young girl. The countdown clock read just a bit more than five minutes. The world around her was changing, as if she swam in water, she gently moved her hands and saw the fabrics of the Multiverse thicken. Sophie reached into her pocket and pulled out the flip phone. “To be on the safe side, all I need is the last couple of seconds.” Her words were not those of a young child. “That’s assuming anything needs to be done.”
Sophie was talking a different language to the digital creature. She held the destiny of the world and everyone was powerless except a handful. Sophie in the real world went to stand between both her father and Emilio. She placed a hand on both and gently took the time to kiss the sleeping forehead of both men. “Daddy, today I might need you one last time.” She whispered. “Let me see past the barrier if anything is worth saving.” The Attractor made no sense to most. “President, save them.”
Billions of humans were powerless watching the strange events from the digital reality. Unlike the other simulations, this one had Sophie’s best interest. The young girl had changed now to one of gatekeeper. She raised her hand and the clock on each screen changed adding thousandth of seconds. Then time began to slow down. The clock began to move mush more slowly. Sophie slowed time. “This should help.”
“It begins,” said Marilyn as the clock changed from minutes to seconds and hit 300.000 seconds.
All screens turned to black.
Sophie smiled at them but her expression was not one of a young girl. She was the Attractor, she was ready. She wasn’t scared.
Then in the darkness of the electronic world, Sophie spoke.
She needed to explain to her two champions, “I shared this power. Father, you will go first. Be our Champion. Cast aside from the real world, invalid and locked in the digital world, save mankind and the earth. Find a way. If you prevail, your path will remain and you will help me. I power you to act in my name. My powers are yours. Save me from having to decide what will be the Sixth Attraction and if we should die. If you fail,” she turned to the other body, “then Emilio will be my next Champion. Emilio you play to save this Multiverse even if this means the end of his beloved mankind you were asked to save. President, you who saw yourself as the savior of mankind must disregard it and side with the Multiverse against the future Marilyn. Find a solution if my father fails. You alone of humanity understands and see more than these simple dimensions.”
“Those are normally my two options, save my kind or save the Multiverse. Both are different roads. I fear they both run nowhere. I fear Marilyn is right and this burden will end upon me as you both fail. Marilyn, on behalf of all, I thank you for your help.” The creature on screen was sick and weakening. Her cheeks were drawn. She just nodded her head.
Then the Attractor spoke words which touched the computer, “Courage is choosing a hard path when an easier one is present. You picked your father and mankind over ultimate power. Irrespective of what comes next, you are more human than anyone I have ever known. Man may have doomed itself, that was part of the freedom it was granted by this Multiverse.” Marilyn knew the girl was right.
She pointed at the band, “Play once again, for her.” The musicians began the most powerful of beats. The drummer went crazy. The instruments gave power and Sophie smiled as she generated one final blast of gold energy. It flew from her hands into the computer. On the screen, Marilyn began to heal and feel the gold surround her.
“Hold, minutes. The Sixth Attraction,” concluded the young girl like a Circus conductor introduces the first act.