Jonas
The world fell away for Jonas Westerbaum. One moment, he was being dragged into an imperceptible sliver of nothingness in some museum, and in the next he was hurtling through space.
Stars and planets flew across his field of view, but he quickly accelerated beyond them and was soon rocketing between galaxies, and super clusters, and even larger structures he could not name. He went past the bounds of the universe and continued flying, past other realities, higher planes at ever increasing speeds. For Jonas, it all became inconceivable and unrecognizable. A blur of everything mixed together at the bottom of a cosmic drain and all throughout, he still felt himself accelerate. And finally, when it felt as if his entire being would be ripped into atomic dust, he was suddenly still
Jonas blinked. He was seated in a lavishly furnished room. Tall ceilings reached up at least two stories and the walls were decorated with elegant, traditional styled detailing. The chair he found himself in was carved from a deep, richly colored cherry wood and upholstered with gold and silver fabric. A wide circular table sprawled out before him, surrounded by several chairs identical to his own. Jonas turned his head. Behind him was a floor to ceiling window that looked out over a great forest. The canopy extended as far as the eye could see, supported by gnarled trunks wider than he was tall. It was sometime close to sunset, and a brilliant magenta glow still tinted the very edges of the clouds that were just visible above the endless forest.
“Enjoying the view?” Nathaniel’s voice brought Jonas’s gaze back to the room. The suited man was now seated across from him in one of the previously unoccupied seats, a drink of some sort in his hand.
“What- where is this?” Jonas sputtered with confusion.
“Welcome to my family home.” Nathaniel gestured at the wide room. “The nothingness beyond all of time and space.”
“If there’s nothing here, how am I seeing all of… this?” Jonas said.
Nathaniel set his drink down. “Whatever you’re seeing right now, it’s not real. I had to make some… adjustments to your body and mind so you could survive and stay sane within the void. Right now your surroundings should appear as some sort of human dwelling.”
Slowly, Jonas surveyed the room once more, this time, paying closer attention to everything, attempting to find anything out of place.
“This is… all an illusion?” He said, unsure of himself and poked the surface of the table. It was just as hard and unyielding as any real object Jonas had even encountered. “Why would you go through all this trouble to keep me sane after everything else you dragged me through?” Jonas asked meekly.
“Because, plans change.” Nathaniel grumbled, taking another sip of his drink. “Your utility has expanded, and I am going to need you alert and alive for what’s next.”
“And what is next?” Jonas asked.
Nathaniel’s face took on an interesting expression for a moment, but he didn’t reply. Instead, he stood from his seat, adjusted his cuffs, and walked to the large double doors that stood at the opposite end of the room. With his characteristic gliding gestures, the spindly man pulled open the double doors and ushered two more figures into the lavish room.
The first of the figures was a woman dressed in a thick sweater with a shawl draped over her shoulders. Jonas recognized her as Nathaniel’s sister Naomi. However, the man who followed her was a stranger to Jonas. His posture was sullen, his face was as pale as death and hidden by an over-sized jacket hood. His arms were stuffed deeply into his pockets. For a moment, Jonas hoped that this was another real human. Then Nathaniel walked behind him and gripped the stranger’s shoulder tightly.
“Now brother, please introduce yourself to our guests, let’s not hold up the proceedings any longer.” The suited man clenched his hand, and his brother winced, an expression of pain visible underneath the shadow cast onto his face. He batted at Nathaniel’s grip before responding.
“Call me Damien.” He said in a low, flat voice. Nathaniel raised an eyebrow at his brother’s curt introduction.
“Well, he’s certainly less talkative towards you than he was with the others.” Nathaniel said half jokingly, before he walked to the head of the table and swiftly took a seat with a swish of his coat tails.
“Others?” Jonas ventured. “Like that woman at the museum?”
“Yes, her. And another one.” Nathaniel said cryptically.
Jonas turned his head and surveyed the room, looking for any other figures hiding behind the columns or poking their heads out from behind doors. Nathaniel shook his head, laughing with disdain.
“They’re out of sync with your perception. You won’t be seeing them. But if it brings you any comfort, you’re not the only flesh and blood creature in here with us.” He said patronizingly.
“Why are they all here? I thought you said you only needed me? To bring my world back after this was all over?” Jonas asked.
“Yes, well, my brother thinks we should be asking your opinions in the following discussion.” Nathaniel replied with a dramatic sigh. He shot Damien a dirty look, who didn’t respond. An awkward silence fell over room. The youngest sibling didn’t meet his brother’s gaze and continued to stare down at the table.
Nathaniel cleared his throat. “Seeing that there are no objections to the state of affairs, we can begin.” He brought his hands up and folded them together on top of the luxury table cloth.
“This,” He said with a grave tone. “Is exactly how we are going to stop our mother, Chaos herself.”
----------------------------------------
Sophie
The chair was too hard, the light was too bright, the air was too dry. A thousand small annoyances assaulted the senses of Sophie Jameson as she sat in a tall modern conference room and cleared her throat uncomfortably. Sat at the other seats around the rectangular, marble great table were Naomi, Nathaniel, and their youngest brother, Damien. Or at least, those were the names Sophie knew them by. In fact the veneer of normalcy that the room displayed was only surface level. A closer look at the siblings, their eyes, and even the world outside the window, showed that they were somewhere far off of any map.
Sophie had woken up in this liminal nightmare after dozing off at her desk. Most nights now were spent like that, languishing in front of projects she would never get done. It had been several months since Christmas day, and the secret was out that the end was nigh. It was undeniable, one could look up at the sky and see the stars disappear right in front of them. The sheer panic that had gripped the whole world had been unlike anything Sophie ever saw. Now, society was barely holding on, civilization had torn itself to shreds long before their doom really arrived. Hopeless, Sophie simply followed the rest of her damned world and consigned herself to a final few days of creature comforts before it was all over.
Yet the last thing she had expected was being transported in her sleep and brought face to face with the beings that had haunted her nightmares for months on end. Through the few moments of terror and confusion, Sophie managed to figure out that she was in some kind of illusory world, outside of her universe. The two elder siblings had apparently found their youngest brother, and now, she was here to sit in on this cosmic family drama. It was overwhelming; sweat poured down her forehead.
“Chaos is primordial, chaos is fundamental. She is the root of existence, and source of everything. But that doesn’t mean she is omnipotent.” Nathaniel began. “We subdued her before the beginning of time, and we can do so again. I suggest we keep to what we know will work. Our brother returns to his job, puts mother back to sleep, and we will clean up the remainder of her influence in the material universes. It’s simple, and gets us back to where we were before.”
Naomi scowled. “And what about after that? Are you going to take the throne again? Proclaim yourself ruler of creation once again, and lord over all of us?”
Nathaniel quickly waved away the question. “We can discuss those specifics afterwards. I do remember my promise to follow your lead, but we are so close to ending it! We just need one final act of determination and this nightmare will all be over! Then we will have all the time in the universe to discuss who is owed what.”
Sophie almost bought the argument. It sounded so reasonable on the face of it. Deal with the greater threat now, and leave the squabbling for later. But some part of her instinctively recoiled away from Nathaniel’s suggestion. Some part of her revolted at his attitude.
“No, I won’t do that.” The objection came from Damien, who had now found the energy to lift his face and look directly at his brother. "The death sleep, the eons of nothingness, I can’t go back to that, I won’t.”
Sophie felt the room grow cold. She saw Nathaniel’s fist clench and the corners of his lips stretch downwards. The elder brother didn’t stand, but his eyes slowly turned and met those of his younger sibling who did not back down from the piercing stare.
“You know what’s at stake.” Nathaniel said slowly, in a deep tone, barely concealing his frustration. “You have no illusions about the situation we are facing. You know how culpable you are. And yet, you still have THE GALL TO PUT YOUR OWN SELFISHNESS ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE?!” Nathaniel’s anger exploded as he slammed a fist into the table. Sophie felt the impossibly powerful shock travel through her body, trembling the walls. “You shirked your duty and ran away the moment you sensed something was wrong! You didn’t even try to fix it! Now after we chased you down across all creation, you are trying to slip away again?! Are you really so self-absorbed you would sacrifice EVERYTHING for your own comfort?!” Nathaniel stood, his presences looming over the entire room.
“No! I want to keep the universes alive! I want to preserve them! I learned to love those worlds like you wouldn’t know!” Damien shouted. His hood had now been completely pulled down from his head, and his teeth gritted as he stood firm against his older brother’s intimidation. “But I am not going to be a…a doormat that paves your way back to power! I’m not going back to being our mother’s jailer at your leisure!”
“You profess to love these mortals and their tiny worlds.” Nathaniel gestured with s spindly arm in Sophie’s direction. “Yet you won’t sacrifice even a moment of your own time for their very existence.” He hissed. “Like I said before, we can discuss the exact terms afterwards, maybe even find a way to keep Chaos restrained without tying you down, but right now, we all need to play our parts, and you are the keystone!”
“After its over, I won’t be around to negotiate.” Damien replied flatly. “I know what you’re like, you’re just going to go back to way things were. Sister will be shunted aside, and I’ll be asleep again, banished outside your creation. You won’t go looking for a way to free me from my duty, it will be business as usual again.”
Nathaniel growled in frustration and slammed his fists into the table a second time. Damien flinched, but didn’t retreat, instead shaking his head in defiance.
Then, from the other side of the table, Sophie heard a slight chuckle and turned her gaze to see Naomi, arms cross, a humorous look across her face. Nathaniel’s gaze snapped to her, a deep scowl trying to burn its way into her face.
“I’m sorry, is there something funny about the end of all creation?!” Nathaniel shouted sarcastically.
“Oh brother of mine…” Naomi trailed off, not the least frightened by the oldest sibling’s rage. She nonchalantly uncrossed her arms. “You have no ammunition left to force us do as you want. You finally know what its like when someone suddenly stop listening to your commands. There’s a certain feeling you get, a sinking, falling feeling, of the world being pulled out from under you.”
“I bet you’re enjoying this.” Nathaniel groaned angrily, seating himself back at the head of the table, his immediate anger subsiding. “After getting me to follow your lead for weeks, you get to see me powerless. You finally get your petty revenge for all those slights.” He clapped sarcastically. “But sister, remember why we are here. Our brother may be a lazy coward, but you know what we need to do. Get your laughs in, and then help me convince him of what needs to be done!”
“No, not this time.” Naomi shook her head. “Our brother is right. I’ve deluded myself for ages, but the truth is we wronged him, we abandoned him, we left him alone when he needed us. Then later, after I had done the heavy work on creation, you betrayed me as well. Since then I’ve been around the block a few times and I can say with full confidence that your reign done the multiverse any huge favors. If we agree and follow through with your plan, you won’t stick around to work things out once its over, it’ll just be smoothed over, covered up, forgotten. I can see through you, and let me tell you, you haven’t changed at all.”
Nathaniel slapped his forehead as he leaned back in his chair. The entire room was silent for a unbearably long moment. Then Sophie heard the sound of a chair creak and Nathaniel pivoted his lanky body upright, turning his head to stare at her. Sophie’s breath caught in her throat at the intense gaze of a cosmic deity older than her universe.
“Can you believe this?” He asked, his voice laced with contempt and disapproval. “We are so close!At the crux of saving the entire universe! And now they won’t go any further!” He looked expectantly at Sophie for agreement, and when Sophie simply stared back blankly, trying to grasp the implications of the argument, Nathaniel scoffed and turned back to face his family.
“So, in conclusion, despite us all finally reuniting after eons to face the end of everything we’ve built, it turns out that neither of you wanted to solve anything after all! The only thing left to do is to accept our defeat and sublimation back into Chaos.” He said sarcastically, clapping his hands together.
Sophie coughed. “Well-“ The word had come out before she was even aware of it. Suddenly, three pairs of otherworldly eyes were fixed on her. Damien, who still had nervousness plastered across his face. Naomi, who looked mildly bemused, and Nathaniel, grave faced and low on patience. Sophie swallowed with difficulty, sweat suddenly streaming down her neck again. There was a newfound fuzziness in her head from the rush of anxiety.
“Well.” She croaked out. “If- if your mother is the problem… Why not try to talk it out with her?”
----------------------------------------
Dawn
Dawn came to slowly, the world around him crystallizing out of the inky black void of sleep. For a few seconds, his groggy brain still believed he was in his bunk at the fortress. That assumption rapidly faded as he saw the walls of the room. Instead of sterile steel and and rudimentary lights, he was now in a huge oval chamber, surrounded by walls clad in all sorts of banners and medals. He was in a seat. It had a functional design but also carried a degree of aesthetics. Heraldry in the form of huge metal plates hung over the locked doorways and stared down with unblinking eyes etched into the chrome surface. Dawn was immediately aware of what this was. It was a war room, the nerve center of any battlefield, where the highest commanders would gather, surrounded by the symbols of their own might and valor. Dawn couldn't recognize any of the specific imagery that were gathered here, but he knew from the polish and meticulous care, that this place belonged to someone very powerful indeed. Suddenly, a jab to his side nearly caused the scout hunter to leap from his seat.
“Blossom?” Dawn exclaimed in shock as he turned to see a familiar face. The other man’s face plates flexed in affirmation. Although his features remained the same, Dawn’s former comrade now wore a casual, non combat outfit of dark colors and loose fit.
“What happened, where’s the fortress-?” Dawn said as he fully righted his body. Now before him were two other figures that had materialized out of thin air. Blossom’s siblings, the two other primordial deities, one who called himself Jubilation, and the other who called herself Contemplative.
“Your have been... transported outside of your reality, this place is akin to a dream for you.” Blossom replied in his characteristic monotone. “I convinced my siblings that we needed you, at least temporarily.”
“What for?” Dawn asked, puzzled.
“The problem of how we are going to put the world back together.” Jubilation replied from the head of the table. “I thought that you could mediate and advise the debate.”
Understanding flickered in Dawn’s mind. If this was something like dream-scape, then it was appropriate that he saw a war-room. The stakes were higher than anything he had ever encountered, and despite Blossom’s insistence that he was important, Dawn felt more unprepared than ever before.
That had been several minutes ago. Time passed differently in this place beyond reality, but suddenly everything had gone wrong quite quickly. It turned out that the short argument he had seen between the siblings in the desert had only been a prelude. Yet, at what seemed to the apex of their disagreement, they had suddenly paused and looked at an empty seat at the other end of the table.
----------------------------------------
Sophie
Sophie’s words hung in the air, before Nathaniel threw his head back and let out a rattling cackle.
“Impossible!” He howled. “That’s the best idea you could come up with?! Our mother is Primordial Chaos itself! She cannot be reasoned with! And certainly not now!” Shaking his head, Nathaniel stood to sulk away before Naomi put up a single finger to wait. Sophie looked over at the older woman who was now deep in thought, her head lowered, eyes narrowed.
“The mortal might be onto something...” Naomi said slowly. “Mother is not totally unreasonable. She has things she wants, and things she hates. If we can find some sort of…trade…”
“What would mother want from us?” Nathaniel shot back. “She only understands power and force! We only overthrew her because we acted quickly and decisively. All she wants is to destroy everything we’ve made and subsume it all back into chaos.”
“We don’t know if its really that simple.” Damien interjected. Nathaniel’s frown deepened slightly but didn’t respond.
Naomi closed her eyes and massaged her temples for a second before replying. “If we want to play it safe, we must assume that mother won’t entertain hearing us out unless we have something that can forcefully stop her from achieving her breakout.”
Slowly she turned to look at Damien.
“Brother, it all comes back to you. You are the only one here with that power.” She said quietly.
“What exactly do you want me to do?” The youngest sibling asked apprehensively.
Naomi pursed her lips. “When we go to negotiate with mother, we will be at her mercy. So we will need leverage on our end. You have to seal her prison from the outside. It won’t be like before, neither you nor her will be rendered unconscious, you just need to prevent her from escaping. As long as we are in her realm, you keep the prison sealed. You only bring down the barrier when she willingly lets us leave.”
“A stalemate” Nathaniel mumbled, stroking his goatee. “She won’t be able to get what she wants by force. She will have make a deal with us to end the standoff.” He sat down slowly, internal calculations visible on his face.
“I-” Damien said. “I can do that, but what if mother moves against the two of you in spite? What if she never lets you leave?” He asked.
“Then you hold the gate forever.” Naomi replied. A tone of steely determination was now in her voice. “You deny her the prize, you deny her creation, even if it takes an eternity for her to spit us back out.”
Damien was quiet for a time. Sophie’s heart thundered in her rib cage. The tension of his decision hung thick I the air.
----------------------------------------
Dawn
Dawn didn’t like how the conversation was going. Firstly the discussion had pivoted to negotiations as potential solution which sounded appealing to Dawn. But Blossom had not agreed to the plan. The youngest of the siblings had now withdrawn into his seat, seemingly distraught at the responsibility that lay before him.
Dawn looked down, averting his eyes to the patternless flooring, and tried focus on his own thoughts. He tried to put himself in the perspective of Blossom. His sister certainly made it sound better than just being used as a tool and discarded like before. Dawn thought. But still, there’s even less guarantee this plan will work. They could be lost forever in Chaos’ prison, and he would be conscious, but alone, and stuck there for the rest of eternity. Is that any different to what he was subjected to before? Dawn turned the idea over in his head some more.
“Coward.” The poisonous accusation flew from Jubilation’s mandibles as the eldest brother threw a loose bolt of cloth from his intricate outfit across one of his arms. “I will conceded that maybe this plan has merit. But its still worthless as long as my brother runs away from every risk and responsibility! This charade is utterly hopeless!” He shouted at no one in particular, saturating the atmosphere with more of his displeasure and disapproval. His antennae were bent dangerously downwards, and an expression of something close to disgust hung on his face. He was very much not living up to his name.
Yet, something in Dawn’s mind lit up upon hearing the words, and he slowly pulled himself out of his chair and walked towards Blossom. Jubilation gave him a suspicious look, yet did not move from his seat. The soldier reached his former comrade and placed a claw on his back.
“Hey.” Dawn said, as he sat down in an adjacent seat. “What do you think of this?” He said, attempting a neutral, non confrontational opening.
“It’s a lot.” Blossom said bluntly. “This plan…I could still be relegated to an eternity of guarding Chaos. I know that my siblings are going to take on even greater risk when they try to do the negotiating, but…doesn’t that just make this plan worse? More of us could meet with an awful fate with no recourse.”
“But…there’s also a different point of view…” Dawn suggested. He had sensed Blossom’s apprehension, an internal conflict. His former comrade had qualms about the plan, but didn’t move to reject it outright.
Blossom let out a sigh, clattering his mandibles. “This plan, it feels… like there’s a real hope for something better. If we succeed, then I’ll be free. It will be a new reality.”
Dawn moved his antenna approvingly. “Hope. That’s a good way of putting it.”
“It’s like you said: Sometimes we have to sacrifice for what we care about.” Blossom continued. “It’s just that this sacrifice is a lot more serious, and the outcome less certain than I had hoped for…but it was naive of me to think that I would just talk to my siblings and everything would just be fixed. Things can’t always be easy, even for so-called gods…”
“Yeah.” Dawn said. “The price of failure is high, but at least there’s hope in this path, hope for our future.”
Blossom stopped for another moment before finally opening his jaws to the room at large. “I’m on board.” He announced. “I’ll be your leverage.”
Contemplative unfolded her arms and moved to thank her younger brother. At the head of the table, Dawn could see Jubilation uncomfortably rise to his hind legs.
“I have no idea how all of you- mortals included- agreed to this idiotic course of action.” He fumed seemingly trying to veto the idea. But Dawn could see that the once cosmically powerful deity was backed into a corner by his equals and by circumstance. “But if this is how it’s going to be, so be it.” He conceded, brining his forelimbs together with a clattering sound. He then walked to a heavy steel door, recessed into the wall and effortlessly swung it open.
“I do insist we hurry.” He said, gesturing into the long hallway seen through the door. “Chaos isn’t going to wait for us to get comfortable.”
----------------------------------------
Sophie
Sophie followed the three siblings closely as they exited the conference room and stepped out into a long, bare hallway. Huge windows lined the walls, all of them opened up onto a monotonous, sterile skyline. Without another word, they set down the passage way towards a single steel door at the other end. Nathaniel walked upfront, his usually haughty posture dampened by the anxiety of what they were about to do. Along side, and reclaiming some of the space her brother now conceded, Naomi strolled with the her usual formality, hands tucked underneath her many layers of wool and furs. Yet, her stride sounded more frantic as well, the clack of her shoes against the hard floors were much faster than what Sophie had recalled. Finally, behind them and trailing by quite a bit, was the man who called himself Damien, the third sibling. His back and shoulders were still slumped and he kept his head under the over-sized jacket hood, but his movement also betrayed a deep sense of urgency.
It was after an eternity, or perhaps just a few short moments, that they finally arrived before the steel door. To Sophie, the length of the hallway seemed to change everytime she took a serious look, and with her sense of time dulled, there was no way for her to tell the actual distance they had covered. Regardless, the imposing steel panel now stood before them. Its surface was completely immaculate with the exception of a single powerful lock attached to a round knob. The whole thing was set into a sturdy frame made from the same polished metal.
Sophie felt a shiver travel up her spine. The gravity of what she was about to do settled into her bones. Just…get through this, and earth will be saved. She repeated in her mind, trying to calm her nerves. Naomi thinks there’s still hope, and thats better than nothing. It was the same thin reassurance that had been repeated many times already, but there was nothing else for Sophie to hold onto, so she focused on the chance of success.
Nathaniel, with slight apprehension, placed his hand on the knob and looked back at his brother.
“We’re here.” He declared plainly. “Seal us in and don’t you dare leave this post until we come back out freely, you understand?” Nathaniel sternly said to his brother.
Damien nodded somberly, in his usual style, then looked Sophie dead in the eye. The young woman resisted trembling and nodded back slowly.
“Good luck...” Was all he said, then the entire hallway behind him was instantly thrown into total shadows. Damien took a single step back, and vanished into the dark. Sophie’s eyes darted around. The brightly lit hallway was completely gone. To her eyes, Nathaniel, Naomi, herself, and the solitary steel door were the only things left. They were all still perfectly illuminated, yet appeared to be floating in a featureless black space. Sophie cautiously took a step forwards, still feeling solid floor underneath her. Tentatively, she reached out into the darkness where Damien had been moments before, and felt nothing but air.
“We’re inside of a causal horizon now.” Naomi said, tapping Sophie on the back. “We’re completely separated from everything else in existence.”
“Let’s get this over quick.” Nathaniel muttered unhappily “Before our brother does anything stupid.” He then reached into his jacket and removed a small chrome key. Naomi did likewise and passed it to him. As Sophie watched, he brought the two keys closer and closer, until here was a small flash of light and the two metal pieces merged into one. With little fanfare, Nathaniel took the key, slid it into the door lock, and turned.
Sophie held her breath. There was one, two, and three clicks before Nathaniel retracted the key. He placed a hand on the door, and gently, and without a sound, pushed it open.
The first thing that struck Sophie was the lighting. The space across the threshold wasn’t pitch black, but was bathed in the hues of a rural midnight. Faint streaks of dim blue cast themselves across the stone tile floor, and through the curtains, Sophie could make out the distant night sky.
“Welcome,” Nathaniel whispered in dramatic tones. “To the resting place of Chaos.”
Naomi rubbed her hands under her scarf and briskly walked through the door, into the entrance vestibule. Nathaniel shot a piercing stare at Sophie and jerked his head towards the door. With shaking knees, the redhead took a deep breath and hurriedly stepped through the opening. Curiously, she didn’t feel anything as her feet went past the threshold. No sudden dread, no stabbing agonies, not even the temperature of the air seemed to vary. Yet now, she was in that dreaded chamber, looking out on the spot she had been just moments before. The realization that she had fully committed to this, made Sophie’s stomach sink. A moment later, Nathaniel stepped over the threshold himself and quietly brought the door to a close behind him.
Sophie took her first cautious breath within the dark chambers and was surprised to find fresh air filling her lungs. She had expected the place to feel like a mausoleum, dead and decaying for an eternity, yet there was a soft breeze that smelled slightly of magnolia flowers.
“I didn’t expect this place to be so…placid.” Sophie whispered.
“It shouldn’t be.” Nathaniel asserted. “Be on your guard, this is doubtlessly one of her tricks.” He grumbled angrily. Then, Nathaniel checked his suit, as if before going on stage, and strode off into the dark foyer with a huff.
“Where are you going?” Sophie whispered after him into the gloom.
“Mother isn’t showing herself to us yet, which means we have to go find her.” Naomi explained. “Stay close,” She continued. “I can feel her watching.”
Sophie didn’t have to be told twice to do something she was so accustomed to by now and closely tailed Naomi into the unknown night.
They walked for sometime, through a narrow hallway with tall windows to their left. Each time they passed a dim patch of light, Sophie tried to look out through the glass, but each time she her gaze was met with a dark curtain, translucent enough to let light through but too opaque to let her see beyond the window pane. Sophie started to shy away from the left side of the corridor as they went deeper, something in her gut recognized that the seemingly placid starlight was not all it seemed.
Moving through a door and out of the hallway, the three made one final turn and found themselves gazing at the foot of a large canopied bed. Heavy blackout curtains were drawn over enormous baroque windows. Large dressers, tables, chairs and chests littered the thickly carpeted floor. Looking beyond the lavishly decorated frame, Sophie could barely make out a small lump in the middle of the expanse of covers.
Besides her, Nathaniel took a deep breath. “She’s been waiting for us.” He said flatly. When he moved again, his steps were suddenly quiet and very careful. Naomi followed suit, her footfalls almost unreasonably slow on the already thick carpet. Sophie, not knowing any other way, followed the siblings example.
Now more than ever, Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Every further step Sophie took, made the room seem twice are large. Her heart thumped rapidly in her chest and anxious thoughts tugged at her mind in maddening whisperers. When at last, she found herself standing by the edge of the bed, Sophie nearly collapsed onto the ground from mental exhaustion.
Looking around at the two siblings, the redhead followed their gaze to the center of the sheets and saw a figure laying there. She was ancient, primeval even, her features deep and furrowed. Her face was sunken, with pure white hair that fanned out behind her head like a halo. The old woman was exceptionally still, not a single twitch of movement occurred anywhere on her body. If this was any other time, Sophie would have wondered if she was even alive or not.
Silently, and with uncharacteristic hesitation, Nathaniel leaned across the massive bed and extended a hand, slowly hovering over the old woman’s shoulder.
Her eyes snapped open a moment before Nathaniel could touch her, causing him to jump back and retract his arm in shock. A chill went down Sophie’s spine as the old woman’s face turned to look at them. Her eyes were completely white, not glazed over, but as if they had no pupil or iris at all. Then, as Sophie watched, two small points of darkness emerged from the milky scalera, expanding until they filled her entire eyeball. Within the inky blackness, colors bubbled and boiled, like the chromatic dance of light on the surface of an oil slick.
Seemingly without effort, and with a speed that was impossible for her age, the old woman sat upright in bed and stiffly turned her full face towards them.
“Ah, my unhappy brood.” She said with a cooing voice that overlapped and echoed a hundred times. “Welcome home at last.”
----------------------------------------
Dawn
Dawn took a step back in the soft flooring of the great mansion. When the elderly figure on the bed had sat bolt up, Dawn’s awareness had been inundated with a sudden flood of meaningless sensations and voices. He struggled to right himself and wrestle back control of his mind.
“…Mother.” Jubilation choked out. The claw that had hovered over her chest was still clutched tightly to his thorax. Dawn held his breath with utter dread. Jubilation was THE cosmic horror, the unfathomable monster of monsters that could obliterate planets with a thought, and now he was quivering like a newborn grub.
“Surprised to see me?” The old woman asked with cutting sarcasm, her aged features twisting into a bemused expression. “Why the frightful looks? Surely you’re all glad to see your old mother after so many years?”
“Don’t mock us. You know exactly what’s going on and why we are here.” Contemplative said her antenna pointed in confrontation.
“Hmmmm.” The old woman only uttered a low groan. Her own antennae slumped down, twitching in the air with annoyance. Then, in a heartbeat, she disappeared from the bed and materialized next to them.
Chaos raised an arm, and the entire room shifted. Dawn staggered, the floor moved beneath his foot-claws, the walls metamorphosed, furniture and decor flowed like water, and suddenly they were no longer in a bed chamber, but a large atrium. The old woman was dressed simply, in a few thin layers befitting a temperate summer, and she was seated in a plain looking chair, her arms crossed over her folded legs. The huge windows remained on the far wall, firmly sealed off with dark curtains that only let through minuscule slivers of light around their edges.
“I know full well why you are here.” The old woman said, her voice sounded amused, as she stared at Dawn and the siblings with her myriad of oil-slick eyes. “You’re here as a last resort.”
Jubilation curled his claw up and dropped it behind his back, trying to regain a bit of his prideful stance. “The universe, all universes are dying, and you are destroying them.” He said. “Everything that exists outside of your domain is being annihilated. You must stop this and return things back to way things were.”
“And why should I?” She answered. “I was imprisoned for eons, before time began, by my own children. They shunned me in my cage, guarded my prison to ensure my eternal entrapment, and went about their small minded nonsense. They have antagonized me and worked against my wishes at every turn, now they come crawling back when their power over me is broken? Why should I listen to a word they say?”
Dawn realized with a start that the last sentence had been directed towards him. The soldier suddenly felt very small despite standing 3 full head-heights over the old woman. His jaws chattered trying to form an answer. However, Chaos did not expect him to reply to her rhetorical question. Instead she returned her attention to her children.
“You have to negotiate with us because you’re still trapped.” Contemplative said, rebutting her mother. “One of us is still guarding this realm. You may be awakening, but he will ensure that you won’t escape. You cannot break through the barrier around the prison.”
Chaos took her arms off of her legs and let out a rattling breath, her antenna folded back in mild annoyance.
“You, my daughter, I expected to try some sort of peace offering, but you, my son,” She faced Jubilation, her firstborn. “I thought you would remain defiantly stubborn to the end…Why have you agreed to this…negotiation...?”
“You don’t need to know.” Jubilation retorted.
“Then we won’t get anywhere.” Chaos’s antenna jabbed downwards in mock disappointment. “If you won’t even give me that, then there’s nothing I can concede either.”
Dawn felt his heartbeat quicken again. This primordial deity knew exactly the kind of power she had over them.
Jubilation squirmed again under the pressure. His face plates contorted in an anxious tic before he finally responded.
“I was advised, to work with my sister and to meet you under a truce.” He said.
“Advice…from the mortals, I see.” Chaos asserted. Dawn noticed a gleam in her deep iridescent eyes. The old woman pivoted on her chair towards the solider.
“You poor thing, so far away from your home.” She said to Dawn with exaggerated pity. “What lies have my children fed you?”
“You never denied that you want to destroy everything.” Dawn replied, his training kept his voice level.
“Ah, but you haven’t asked what I plan to do afterwards.” Her voice turned sly, beckoning Dawn to ask the next question.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
“What’s your plan?” He replied.
“I could make your people a better universe in its place.” Chaos said, a glint in her eye. “I could create a paradise for mortals, where my son and his mindless minions no longer hold dominion over the universe, where they can no longer terrorize worlds as they see fit, wouldn’t you like that?”
“Stop it!” Jubilation suddenly stepped forwards, his long legs carrying him past Dawn and right in-front of his mother. “You would never do such a thing! You are disorder and entropy! You would leave all of creation a churning husk of destruction for all eternity!”
“Would I?” The old woman leaned her head out from behind her son’s imposing frame and locked eyes with Dawn. “I am also fortune and luck. Perhaps I have decided that it is time for the mortals to get their well deserved rewards?”
“Don’t listen to her.” Jubilation’s head twisted one-hundred-eighty degrees, his burning eyes temporarily blinding Dawn with light. Jubilation’s words contained anger, perhaps even a threat.
“She’s trying to turn you to her side.” Contemplative stepped up from behind. “I know you mortals have good reason to doubt us, hate us even, but you CANNOT do anything she tells you to.”
“And why is that?!” Dawn replied, the frustration in his voice shocked even himself. “I’m just a mortal! Just a microbe! Just an insignificant piece of nothing! Why would it matter to you what I do?!”
Jubilation took a deep breath, the supernova in his eyes dimmed.
“Don’t you see? She’s trying to use you as a mouth piece to get to my brother! If she can convince you, then she can send you mortals back out there with the news that a deal has been made. He will lower barrier, and there will be nothing holding her back from breaking out for good.” Jubilation said with a tired voice.
Silence hung in the air. Jubilation’s fiery anger had diminished entirely, and Dawn could now see an emotion in his face that almost resembled pleading. There was no more pride, just desperation.
“Fine.” Dawn.
“A shame.” Chaos replied, with exaggerated disappointment. Elegantly, she swept her legs off the seat and walked to the edge of the large window. Slowly, she leaned her head into the recessed frame and pulled the heavy curtain aside just enough for her to look outwards. Dawn saw the blue light wash over her face and momentarily, a strange pattern flashed through the glow before she let the heavy fabric fall.
“Stop it with the tricks,” Contemplative said. “And just talk with us.”
“You’re just as trapped as I am.” The old woman murmured absent mindedly. “Stupid children, you still can’t beat your mother at the long game.”
“Cut to the chase.” Jubilation said, regaining his composure. “I know that you want something. And I want something too. There is an ocean of bad blood in this family, no one knows that more than I.”
“And we’re at a stalemate here!” Dawn interjected. “None of us can get what we want! So let’s all just compromise, ok?”
Chaos turned her eyes back to them, and Dawn realized with a shiver that she had no more mirth left in her being.
“Compromise…” She thought aloud, combing her antenna with a claw. “Now that you mention it, I would be more than willing to remain where I am, if you would be willing to remake your creation into something more fitting my tastes, something like…this.” Chaos raised an arm and brought in down in a sweeping motion.
Instantly, the huge curtains that blocked the windows fell into heaps on the ground. A unseen force rushed in, blowing the window inwards. The swinging panes clattered against walls as a powerful shriek filled the room. Blue light flooded in, but it wasn’t the dim blue glow of a night sky. Instead Dawn cringed when the blinding glare smashed into his eyes.
And then he saw it. The truth of the sky beyond the false walls of the illusory realm. The sky burned, a cosmic fire of a kind he couldn’t describe engulfed the heavens. Space itself pulsated slowly like a dying heart with forces wriggling beneath the skin of reality like scavengers digging through a corpse. Stars exploded before his eyes, their remnants eaten by other celestial bodies, or birthing a hundred new points of light in a sick parody of the physics he understood. Black holes pockmarked the entire night sky like open wounds, and from their darkness, Dawn could see things moving in and out, things thousands of times the size of whole star systems, gliding across the flaming void, all a part of the cosmic insanity.
But for Dawn there was more to the horror than just an assault on his eyes. Every other sense was overloaded simultaneous. He heard every word imaginable, the sounds of battle, sweet percussive music, and the howl of a tropical storm. He smelt and tasted every scent and flavor his mind could process. The impossible combination of ambrosial sweetness and rotten waste made him heave onto the ground. And his skin, every inch of his exoskeleton passed through fire, ice, acid, and liquid bliss at the same exact moment.
Dawn fell onto the floor, writhing and screaming, his voice nothing more but another component to the chaos around them.
“ENOUGH!” Contemplative shouted and suddenly the agony and ecstasy was gone from Dawn’s body. He picked his head up off the floor slowly, still dazed. “Is this what you really want?! To turn everything thats precious to me, to….to this festering mess?!” She yelled.
“To be honest, my daughter, I don’t care what happens to this...thing you made. What I need, is for you to finally give me the due respect you owe me.” Chaos’s voice soared above the damped noise within the room. “What I want is obedient children! Offspring who offer me the reverence that I am owed and acknowledge that my decisions are the last word, on anything, in existence!”
The entire room shook, and the whole horrible, universe outside the windows stood still for a moment as Chaos’s last shout passed her jaws.
“There it is.” Jubilation said bitterly. “The truth.” His face became rage and spite. “I will never yield to you, and I will never apologize for what I did.” His mandibles clicked in an aggressive chatter. “You’re just spouting empty threats. It’s the exact same thing you said before we caged you last time.”
“Do. Not. Test. Me.” Chaos warned.
“Let’s… all calm down.” Dawn suggested, extending his arms forwards. “Tempers are high right now, but we can negotiate, and have everyone come away from this with what they want-”
The old woman snapped her gaze onto him.
“Ah, the mortals. Still clinging onto the hope my children have filled your heads with.” She said with venom in her voice. “If you won’t help me escape the subtle way, then perhaps you’ll still be useful in a more forceful approach.” Fear shot down Dawn’s body and he took a step back.
Chaos looked to her children. “You have put a lot of faith in your brother.” She said. “But we all know he has no resilience. How quickly will he surrender when he sees the punishment I have inflicted upon his siblings and his beloved mortals? How quickly would he break then? I wonder…”
Contemplative seemed to understand what was going to happen before Jubilation did. Dawn hadn’t parsed the words at all when the siblings suddenly sprung into motion. They leaped towards their mother, their expression panicked, all arms outstretched, light and energy cackling into existence on their claw tips. Dawn recognized the intent to subdue an armed opponent. A millisecond later he was thrown off his feet by the release of cosmic forces. Power to tear through reality arced towards the seemingly frail old woman. But Chaos did not flinch, and she was much faster than her children. With impossible speed and fluidity, she slammed all her limbs together in front of her face in a singular powerful shock. Dawn barely felt the force impact his body before the world exploded.
----------------------------------------
Jonas
Jonas had no time to react. One moment, the unearthly old woman before him had been talking, constructing another threat to level at her children, and the next moment Nathaniel and Naomi were in the air, grabbing for their mother in sheer desperation. Time seemed to slow. Jonas saw a bright light flash from their hands, Then the old woman, Chaos herself, made a impossibly fast clapping motion.
In that instant, the illusion of materiality and physical space vanished. Matter evaporated. The room, the infernal parody of a universe beyond its walls, even Jonas’s own body were all spontaneously annihilated. Jonas found himself disembodied and thrown into the yawing ocean of churning madness. Here, lost in the maelstrom, it was as if reality had been nothing more than some old wall paper that had been torn down, revealing formless chaos as the true foundation that lay just underneath a thin facade.
A torrent, a cascade, a tsunami, a supernova of alien thoughts, sensations and stimuli assaulted Jonas’s disorientated mind. A faint recollection, one he was pretty sure came from his own memory, flashed through his mind, a scene from a dream he had not long ago. But it was hopeless to try to hold onto the memory and examine. The feeling of familiarity was gone just as fast as it had arrived, tossed away in the stream of potentiality and ever changing nonsense that suffused his entire being.
“IDIOT SPAWN.” The single thought slammed into Jonas from every direction at once. There were no words, just pure meaning and intent, the true voice of Primordial Chaos unshackled by guise or mask. “BOTH OF YOU ARE DISAPPOINTMENTS OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE. YOU ARE NOTHING BUT SPECKS OF A MINUTIA OF AN INFINITESIMAL FRACTION OF MY BEING. YET YOU HAVE DARED TO NOT ONLY STRIKE AGAINST YOUR CREATOR, BUT YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO TRY TO FORCE CONCESSIONS OUT OF ME FOR A SECOND TIME?! YOU CREATED TOYS TO PLAY WITH IN THE DIRT AND THINK YOURSELVES GODS. I AM THE ROOT OF ALL THAT IS, I AM YOUR GOD.”
With each unbearable thought that crashed into him, Jonas felt his soul forced ever deeper into the broiling primordial infinity. He felt his very self on the verge of fracturing many times, yet the chaos around him seemed to force the pieces of his being back together each time.
“YOU WILL ONCE AGAIN SUBMIT TO MY WILL.” The omnipresent mind intoned. A hundred fractures shot through Jonas’s consciousness again, threatening to undo him, but the currents of the metaphysical ocean shoved this broken spirit together again. “DO NOT THINK YOU WILL DIE SO EASILY.” Jonas felt the immense, indescribably vast presence focus itself onto him. “WHEN MY YOUNGEST OFFSPRING SEES WHAT HAS BECOME OF HIS PETS, HE WILL GIVE IN. YOU THREE COULD EVEN LIVE ON. A REMINDER FOR MY CHILDREN OF THEIR PAST FOLLY, NEVER TO THINK ABOUT DEFIANCE UNDER MY WATCH AGAIN.”
Chaos won’t let me die. She’s going to torture me like this forever. The realization flashed through his mind and was washed away. Instinctively, he reached out. His tendril of consciousness slipped past two other mortal minds, and brushed against a gargantuan awareness. The force of its being made Jonas’s mind recoil. The thing was infinite in scope, so much vaster than his own meager awareness, and it exuded it a aura of burning defiance and pride. Yet, even it was helpless against the currents of Chaos, unable to stand still in the primordial tempest. With shock, Jonas realized that this was the thing that called itself Nathaniel Yiarr. The dark god that could threaten whole universes with a thought, rendered utterly powerless in an instant. A moment later, that thought too, was shoved from his mind by another deluge of chaotic sensation.
Just then, a second enormous mind passed over Jonas. Without thinking, his awareness instantly shot out, hoping to contact the entity that once wore the guise of Naomi Myrrine. His mind brushed against the deity’s awareness for a moment and a million fuzzy contingencies filled his head before being washed out into Chaos. She’s still planning. Jonas thought. Maybe there’s still a way out.
Yet, before he could reply, the god was gone. Flung an infinite distance apart in mind from the minuscule mortal. But something had been roused in Jonas’s being. Concentrating, and hoping beyond hope that Chaos saw him as too insignificant to bother with, he mustered up his memories. Images of a desert flashed in front of his eyes. Long days in a cramped car, a cold city in the winter, and the mansion in the woods. The suddenness of this thought surge momentarily halted the tide of chaos in his mind, and Jonas rummaged through his memories trying to put together a coherent picture. His first thought was to Chaos, and her spawn.
Her children were all aspects of her being, Jonas had realized. Naomi was the creative principle, and the one that called himself Damien had emanated from Chaos’s destructive, annihilative nature. But then who was Nathaniel? Jonas reached for the first word the crystallized: ego. The pieces slotted into place. The dark god was pride and self awareness. The individuality born from chaos, that nonetheless shared the same essence. Then, if Nathaniel’s mind was a splintered aspect of his mother’s then perhaps the two could be convinced in the same way.
Jonas pivoted his recollection immediately to that fateful day right before they arrived at the outskirts of Los Angeles. Nathaniel had been reluctant to listen, and it wasn’t any kind of flattery that changed his mind in the end, it had been the promise of results, a way to get what he wanted. Similarly, to really bring Chaos to the negotiating table, they had to first give her what she wanted. Her children would need to concede something to her. A portion of creation? Their own freedom? Jonas had no idea, but there was no time for him to ponder on what that would be. Cradling his bundle of half formed ideas, he propelled the thoughts with all his might towards the place where Naomi’s mind had last been.
I did all I could. Jonas’s thoughts were already coming down from overdrive back to a single stream of consciousness. The sea of chaos pressed in on all sides. Hopefully it was enough.
Then suddenly, from the tumult he heard Naomi’s thought-voice pierce through the din.
“You win mother!” She shouted across dimensions unseen. “You win! We surrender!”
Jonas felt the primordial, formless storm halt for a split second, and then he was rising. Rising through Chaos, past the first inklings of time, then space, and then past the part where concrete matter reformed. He rose faster and faster until he suddenly had eyes again, and could see the large room with the curtained windows before him again. A force rushed through him, his ears popped, and Jonas landed onto the floor, knees trembling, eyes wild. The floor felt solid beneath his feet.
Chaos stood before them and slowly unclasped her hands. Beside him, A large mass of fleshy tendrils quickly crammed itself back into the shape of a tall suited man, as a similarly sized bulk of iridescent liquid and gas reformed into a woman in a sweater.
“I’m glad that you’re starting to see things my way.” Chaos mumbled. The satisfaction was audible in her voice.
“We surrender.” Naomi repeated. “We were wrong to set up our creation outside of your gaze, in defiance of your will.” She lowered her head.
“Yes, yes, but don’t think platitudes will earn my forgiveness!” The old woman barked. “Demonstrate you really will be obedient! Show me that you will do as I say!”
Naomi silently turned to her brother. As Jonas observed, information was exchanged via a glance and Nathaniel sighed. His face was a mask of displeasure, yet he straightened his suit and advanced. His mother turned to face him.
“These are our terms.” He said awkwardly before looking the old woman dead in the eyes. Another surge of information seemed to invisibly pass between them. Understanding flashed over the old woman’s face, then a smile of satisfaction.
“Good, good.” She cooed and extended a hand. Nathaniel grasped hers and shook once. Jonas held his breath, but there was no pulse of energy, no rush of force. Just a simple deal.
“Let it never be said that I was unfair or hateful to my own children!” Chaos loudly proclaimed, self satisfaction filling her voice. “They have conceded is what is rightfully mine, so what is the harm in allowing them to run around for a bit longer? I will graciously let the leave this realm with their toys intact!” Then, she raised an arm, and the room rumbled, quickly metamorphosing back into a lavish bedroom with carpeted floors.
Jonas looked over at Nathaniel and Naomi. Both wore uncomfortable looks, and Jonas silently dreaded the cost of whatever had changed Chaos’s mind. He hoped that he wouldn’t be returning to a universe twisted into the terribly mockery he had been shown. The old woman glided towards her bed, effortlessly lifted herself into it and then took one last long look at her children.
“I’m am letting you free for now, but don’t think I’m ignorant of the gamble you’re playing at.” She warned. “Your hope is misplaced. I have already won, and very soon, all three of my children will be called back here, to sit at their mother’s side for eternity, where they have always belonged.” Then the room changed again and Jonas found himself and the two siblings by the entrance foyer.
Jonas scanned around and realized that the walkway leading deeper into Chaos’s realm had been sealed. The exit was their only path. Wordlessly, Nathaniel pushed the door way open to the shadowed hallway. The other two quickly stepped out and he closed the door on their heels. Jonas heard the locks click once, twice before a final thunk signaled the door had truly been sealed.
Nathaniel turned to the darkness that surrounded the lone door. “Brother!” He called out. “It’s over!”
----------------------------------------
Sophie
As soon as the words left Nathaniel’s lips, the darkness vanished. The large minimalistic hallway emerged from the gloom and long streaks of midday light filled Sophie’s vision. Sighing out in relief, she ran under the nearest sun beam and stood there breathing deeply in and out, staring at the featureless midday sky beyond the undecorated windows. From the disappearing shadows, Damien stepped forwards, awkwardly shuffling up to his siblings.
“What happened?” He asked frantically. “Is everything alright?!” Naomi raised her head and gave him a look. Suddenly, Damien’s posture changed. His shoulder lowered and the tension in his neck subsided.
“Oh, I see.” He said, and then was quiet.
“Be happy brother.” Nathaniel said bitterly, his own head was hung low and his eyes stared at the ground. “You got the freedom you wanted.”
“We can discuss that later.” Naomi declared, rubbing her head with her hands. “The important thing is that Chaos has stopped her assault on creation. All universes are saved from destruction, and we are free to leave.”
“For the time being.” Nathaniel warned despondently. “There is so much work ahead for us.”
“Later.” Naomi firmly replied. “I think we have some guests that will need to go back home.” Nathaniel looked up at the ceiling, leaned on the balls of his feet and sighed.
“Right, clean up first.” He said before striding off, back down the hallway, towards the conference room that they had first come from.
Walking back through the winding corridors, Sophie reflected on the hell she had just been through moments before. Already her memory of the encounter with primordial Chaos were already blurring. The indescribable events that had occurred outside of all reality slowly leaked from her recollection, and the more she tried to concentrate on a specific feeling or emotion, the faster it slipped from her mind. Sophie slowed her excited pace, mumbling something and rubbing her eyes.
“Starting to forget?” Naomi asked.
“Yeah…” Sophie grumbled. “I…I can still remember bits, but that was…minutes, seconds ago, why can’t I-.”
“Chaos cannot be comprehended by material creatures.” Nathaniel chimed in without turning back. “Your mind can’t hold her memory, just like a net cannot hold water.”
“What’s going to happen to me?” Sophie’s blood suddenly ran cold in her veins. In the cosmic maelstrom, her fear and panic had been a visceral emotion, survival from one moment to the next. But now, the true magnitude of what she had been through sunk down like a icy stone in the pit of her stomach.
“All three of you mortals will forget everything that has occurred with here.” Nathaniel replied. “You will forget our true identities, and you will not remember us as anything more than mortals like yourself. The events of the apocalypse have been retroactively averted in all your worlds, and so your memory will conform this new reality.”
Sophie nodded, trying to imagine the implications. But mostly she was relieved that her life would finally return to normal. Reaching the conference room door, Nathaniel ushered them all in and shut it behind them.
“This is farewell to the mortals.” Nathaniel began, seemingly addressing no one in particular. He faced the conference table and looked down at its polished surface. “Despite your utter insignificance and ignorance of…basically everything, your contribution this day has been…substantial. So have a brief, but…hopefully fulfilling life.” Then he raised his hand and lightly snapped.
Instantly, a ringing sound flooded Sophie’s ears and she winced, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth as the grating noise died away. When she finally opened them again she had to suppress a audible gasp. She was back at the Art Institute Museum. Her exhibition stood front and center on its pedestal, visitors thronged around it, eager to get a glimpse of light-show that danced across the large monitors. Through the glass walls and out the window, there was a light snow falling over Chicago.
“Merry Christmas day.” Naomi’s voice spoke, bemused. Already reeling from the shock of being displaced across time and space, Sophie nearly screamed and jumped in surprise. The older woman stood, like just another tourist in the crowd, the only thing hinting of her true nature were the strange reflections that gleamed off her eyes.
Sophie breathed out and sucked in a deep breath. “God it- why does it always have to be so sudden?! Would it kill you guys to give a warning of some kind?!” She moaned.
“Looking at it here, without any personal investment in it anymore, it is rather beautiful” Naomi replied, sidestepping Sophie’s complaint. She gestured at the grand exhibit.
“It-it’s normal now?” was all Sophie mustered in response. “And, I’m really back on Christmas day? Everything that happened after that…?”
“Yes, the exhibit is normal now. Still beautiful, intricately produced, the pinnacle of this world’s science and art, but entirely mundane by your standards. It will no longer show you the future, and it will no longer open up any portals to the void outside creation.” Naomi’s voice seemed tinged with a hint of sadness.
“-and the time-line stuff? Is this really Christmas day?” Sophie pressed.
“Like my brother told you, cataclysm has been averted across all of existence, and anything that would have happened as a result of it, never did.” Naomi said simply. “The stars are not going out any more. Everything is back the way it should be.”
“So now what.” Sophie said surprised, under her breath.
“Now, you will forget.” Naomi sighed. “Your mind cannot remain out of sync from the time line you live in, unless you want your brain to slowly dematerialize from the inside of your skull. ”
Sophie stood silent for a long time, her mind swirled with thoughts, emotions regarding the past several weeks, would she really want that to be taken from her? To forget what she went through and live in blissful ignorance?
“I’m sorry.” Naomi said, seeing Sophie’s face. “I can tell that your memories will be hard to part with. You’ve seen beyond the walls of your universe, what curious creature wouldn’t want to keep that knowledge? But surviving…has its price, and I’m afraid there is no way around this.”
Slowly Sophie nodded. “I guess…yeah…It’s the price for surviving.” She said after a lengthy pause. “But before it happens, what are you going to do?” Sophie asked to Naomi.
“Well, first there are terms we presented my mother.” The older woman said. “I’ll have to meet again with my siblings to discuss how we move forwards, then start working on whatever’s coming next. I think you’ve already guessed that we don’t plan on fully going through with the surrender. There’s going to be another confrontation with Chaos eventually, and one after that, and one after that. There is always more work to be done to make sure we don’t lose everything."
“Your bargain with her…” Sophie muttered, “Should I be worried about that?”
“Oh, you needn’t even think about it. She’ll be placated for a good long while, at least a trillion of your lifetimes.” Naomi said. “And as for what we traded away to her, it’s a loss for my older brother, but nothing that will affect your world in any way.”
Sophie sighed in relief. There was a pause as the two women simply looked on at the people admiring the exhibit.
“You’ll do just fine.” Naomi finally said. “The credit for that design, is rightfully yours.” She pointed at the large screens set on their raised platform. Suddenly, a faint memory flashed in Sophie’s mind and she felt a long object tucked in her coat pocket. Quickly she reached in and fished out a long electronic cigarette.
“Keep it.” Naomi said, seeing the device. “It’s an apology, a token of my remorse. But you don’t need to forgive me.” Naomi pursed her lips for a moment. “At the very least, it will be good to step out of my brother’s shadow. After all of this, I think he understands that he’s not the only one in charge anymore.” Naomi concluded before glancing at at the open door of the exhibition hall.
Sophie tucked the sleek object back into her coat. “I guess this is good bye then?” The red head asked.
Naomi only nodded, turned around and vanished into a surging crowd at the door. Sophie’s lips turned up in a thin smile for a moment. Then an odd sensation washed over her. For a moment, she quickly spun around in confusion, searching the crowd, convinced that she had lost track of someone, but that feeling quickly faded and she turned back to admiring the success of the exhibit.
Its unfortunate Naomi had to leave the country on such short notice, she was a great help finally getting this last minute crunch project up and running, a shame she won’t be here to receive her part of the credit. Sophie thought. Already, the strange fog of doubt, melancholy and anxiety that had been inexplicably hanging over her head had begun to dissipate. Feeling something in her pocket, Sophie took it out and laid eyes on a long, thin electronic smoke.
Oh, I remember, she gave this to me before she left for her flight yesterday. Sophie pieced the new recollection together. I guess it’s supposed to represent her when our department gets to walk up during some awards ceremony or something. She speculated in her mind. She stared at it quietly for a minute before finally putting the smoke away and taking in the sight of the exhibit hall again. Her design stood there, shining as the central pillar of a complete and cohesive piece of art.
Sophie smiled a little bit with pride. She and her department had made it through the test successfully. They had delivered their promise on time and with great quality, and what was more, Sophie’s own name was front and center on such a prestigious project. A fine achievement for someone as early into her career as she was. Breathing out a contented breath, Sophie let her eyes close in calming contentedness, things were finally looking up.
----------------------------------------
Dawn
Dawn shot up with a jolt in his bunk, nearly slamming his face into the armored ceiling. The ringing in his ears still echoed within his brain, a phantom of that unbearable sound. He took a deep breath and looked around. Sunlight streamed in through the small window casting stark shadows onto the sleeping sick bay.
Early morning. He thought. Then, he heard a sound in the distance. His brain didn’t register it at first, even after all of the cosmic impossibilities he had seen in the last several days, that sound was something that his brain had long ago dismissed as impossible.
The ocean! The sound finally registered in his mind as waves, ocean waves crashing into rocky shores. Then above the din, the shrill warbling of sea life reached his ears. Dawn’s hearts thumped with anticipation, with excitement, and with desperation. Throwing off his covers and ignoring the pain of a barely sealed wound, Dawn stuffed his limbs into a simple uniform and made a break for the door. The fortress was on low alert, civilian leaders and soldiers were sparse throughout he halls, alarms were silent and guards stood leisurely at their posts. Dawn sped past them, showing his identification at the important checkpoints and making a break for the courtyard. The sentries along his route gave him odd looks at his raggedness and desperation, but didn’t impeded his movement.
Finally tearing out of the last of the major defensive walls, Dawn made a mad dash across the encampment plateau and stopped just as the solid ground gave way to thin air. There, beyond the cliff and a stretch of flat sands, were rolling blue waves, cresting, breaking and falling onto the shore in an endless procession stretching to the horizon.
Dawn felt his hearts thump into his chest and he rubbed his eyes once, then twice, before collapsing into the dusty earth, crying out in relief and joy.
“It’s my first time seeing the sea as well.” Dawn looked up at the voice and saw Blossom slowly take a seat in the dirt next to him.
“How-?” Dawn choked through his emotions. “It’s back, all of it-”
“The time-line was remade.” Blossom replied. “In this reality, the god eater was completed on time and worked a wonder. The star machine was obliterated, and all of its damage was undone in an instant.” He took a deep breath of the salty air.
“Your world lives again, and I’m very happy for that.” He turned and looked at Dawn with a joyful expression.
“I-I don’t even know wh-“ Dawn sputtered. “The sea, the forests, all of it was burned from this world when I was so young… I barely remember any of it. But it’s back! Not after years or centuries, but right now right here, it’s back!” His body let out another spasm of relief and joy. A soft breeze blew across the top of the of the fortress plateau, bringing the faint smell of the wilderness along with it.
Finally pulling his face from the sand, Dawn took another long moment to absorb the beauty of his home, before turning to the other man. “My memory…I’m going to forget? Everything?”
“Not everything.” Blossom replied. “The war against the star machine was part of your reality long before me and my siblings became involved. Your people weathered the worst of that storm without my help, that will not be taken from you. But your more recent encounter with me, and your time in the void. That will all have to go. Such alien experience will fester in mortal minds.”
Dawn flicked his antennae with affirmation.
“I will just be another fellow comrade in your memory.” Blossom said somberly, before laughing to himself. “It’s ironic, that all of you will remember me as brave and fearless in battle, despite the real coward I was.” He scoffed. “Look at me, I was so afraid of my family’s judgment, I ran away to a mortal’s battlefield to play soldier.” His mandibles clacked as he laughed harshly at himself.
Dawn reached out and landed a claw on Blossom’s shoulder.
“I…still don’t know enough of about you to make a call about whether you’re a coward or not.” Dawn said, still recovering from his own emotional outburst. “But, I think you did the right thing at the end. You saved our planet, and you got your siblings on the right track to stop Chaos, that’s not nothing.”
“Yeah…” Blossom replied, staring directly ahead into the bright morning sky.
“I think I’m going to stay here, in your world for the time being.” He finally said. “This can be my starting point to visit and understand all the worlds I helped to preserve.” Blossom turned and looked at Dawn “And if we meet again, you will only know me in mortal guise, and never grasp the full truth again. Will that be alright with you?”
“…Yeah, I think I would prefer it that way.” Dawn said. “I’m tired of all this cosmic nonsense. I think I’ve had enough of it for ten lifetimes.”
“Then, I guess this is a kind of farewell.” Blossom said.
“Yeah, farewell to darkness and void and chaos.” Dawn laughed. And then Blossom laughed, and the two continued to laugh, jaws chittering with joy and relief, for good while longer, admiring a broken world that had finally been set right.
----------------------------------------
Jonas
“I….I’m home?!” Jonas cried looking around frantically. But there was no doubt, he was back in the asphalt parking lot in front of his apartment building. The familiar side paneling of the five story structure greeted him like an old friend. The sun was high overhead, right before noon, and Nathaniel stood several paces behind.
“Your world, your people, all restored to exactly the way it was. An entire universe reconstitute from Chaos’s clutches” He made a wide gesture at the sky. Jonas ran over to the bushes dotting the base of the apartment and rubbed them between his fingers.
“Yes, yes, its all real, all fully solid.” Nathaniel said.
“So it’s all over then…? All the things that were happening on my world, all those fish...creatures, those huge city destroying balls, that flying…blob thing, are they all gone now?” Jonas asked.
Nathaniel clasped his hands behind his back and paced towards Jonas. “Yes, they are gone now.” He said. “Most of them had been on your world for eons. In ages past, I led all manner of creatures across the stars to your world, for a myriad of plans and schemes. New empires to build, new games to play.”
Jonas narrowed his eyes. “Then…how does that relate to the apocalypse?”
“I had no intention of your people ever encountering them.” Nathaniel explained. “That is why I tucked them away deep beneath the earth, set them to sleep beneath the waves, and sealed them in dimensional crawlspaces between realities. But my mother’s awakening loosed them on your world, and their rampage scattered this planet to dust.”
“Where are they now then?” Jonas asked.
“Sent back to their own planets, or given new ones.” Nathaniel replied. “After all, my time of ruling creation is coming to an end, and I wouldn’t want to leave a mess Chaos could exploit.”
Jonas’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.
“The terms of our “surrender” that I made.” Nathaniel said. “Don’t you want to know what they were?”
“Oh that,” Jonas thought aloud. “Yeah, I was wondering what that was about, you didn’t trade away anything…important did you?”
“What do you think?!” Nathaniel shouted, his anger made Jonas flinch. “I had to abdicate my throne! I am no longer the ruler of creation! My subordinates will be re-purposed back into the automaton they were initially created as, and my position of authority is no more!”
“That sounds like a good thing to me.” Jonas mumbled.
“Don’t sound so glib about my absence.” Nathaniel warned, his eyes flaring like two miniature suns. “After I leave, my mother will take my place as the chief influence upon the universe. Her essence will now be allowed to permeate your universes while she sleeps, influencing all life towards her chaos and disorder, and when she has converted all of you mortals to her side and twisted reality to her whims, she will wake again to recapture me. Make no mistake Jonas Westerbaum, the agreement has only bought us time. It is indisputable that this time I lost, you lost, all of creation lost.”
Jonas was silent in thought for a while. Nathaniel continued to pace the parking lot, stroking his goatee rapidly.
“For what it’s worth.” Jonas finally said. “I don’t think its as simple as you make it seem. I think it’s going to be much harder than your mother thinks, if she wants to turn all of us to her ways. We flesh and blood people may have come from chaos, but we’re also pretty good at trying to create order. We carved out our own lives here on this planet, even in the face of so much chance and misfortune. I think we’re kind of like you in that way, actually.”
Nathaniel looked up from his ruminating with narrowed eyes.
“That is the hope that my sister bet on.” He said. “If you mortals could keep an ordered universe in our absence, Chaos would never have her final victory.” He looked up at the sky. “But my mother will never accept that kind of defeat. If she fails to get what she wants with this deal, if she realizes that we have not given up and are just playing her for time, then she will resort to destruction once again.”
“But when that time comes, your brother and sister will be there as well, won’t they?” Jonas pointed out. “Since you sorted things out with your siblings this time, I think that they’d be willing to stand with you when the time comes again.” Jonas scratched his head. “Maybe there’s no deal that will last forever, but it’s like a give and take, a new fight every so often, a new agreement each time, with the three of you working together to stop Chaos from running amok. At least thats how I see it. That’s just what having a difficult family is like, I think.”
“Hmmmmmmm.” Nathaniel made a miffed rumbling in his throat. “An interesting perspective.” He admitted stiffly. Then he turned on his heels and quickly strode to the other end of the parking lot.
“I’ll be leaving your mud-ball for a billion years to sort out my affairs.” Nathaniel declared. He adjusted his tie and took a deep, melodramatic bow. “You will never see me again and every memory of me and my kin will be expunged from your mind. Your car is on the other side of the building, your house keys are in your left pocket, and phone in your right.” Then, like a mirage, Nathaniel’s form wavered, morphing rapidly through a hundred different shapes, and vanished into thin air. Jonas continued to stare at the spot in space for a while longer, and when he was sure there was nothing more there, he turned on his heels towards the front door.
It’s a bit strange. Jonas thought as he approached the door. Why am I out here on a Saturday noon? I can’t be getting the mail, that doesn’t come until three… Stopping at the front door, he wracked his brain trying to remember what he had been doing morning. There was waking up…breakfast…and I guess I watched TV? He thought. Just another lazy Saturday. He bemoaned internally, before stopping. As he stared up at the siding of his house, and the blank blue sky beyond, a faint realization crystallized in his mind.
This job, this town….there’s really nothing here for me is there? Jonas turned back and took a long look at the uninteresting, sleepy place he called a home. I’ve been here for five years, avoiding my family like a coward, doing whatever work gets piled my way and for what? Just to do it again the next day?
Jonas sighed, as the memory of a promise he had made to himself bubbled up from somewhere deep within his mind, a promise to leave this place and never look back, a promise to start a new life. For a few minutes, Jonas stood stationary, in the hot sun, contemplating it in his head. Beads of sweat rolled down his face and a hot humid summer wind dragged across the dusty parking lot. Finally, Jonas turned back to the door and began to reach for his keys.
He still had a lot to get done today. Polishing up his resume, sending out applications, there was still quite a bit of work to be done before he could hand in his two weeks notice. Maybe he would even call his family after all this time, finally get some kind of closure with them. There was also the question of where he would go, and something in his gut told him that the West Coast was going to be quite beautiful this time of year.