Chase existed in a place she couldn’t describe. It was as though time had absorbed her. Soon, she felt others, people who were part of this existence.
“Who is there?” Her voice echoed endlessly across this unknown expanse of nothingness.
Those same three words resounded back to her, but from different voices. She knew them, her father, EB, Father Time, Nova, Quark, Peyton, Rutkowski. They were all speaking. But were they real? Did she simply want to see someone so badly right now that her mind was playing tricks?
“Drochah is dead, but were we too late?” She thought to herself. “Did time itself collapse at the last moment, destroying everything in our solar system? Did we fail?”
Suddenly, a great tunnel formed through this expanse. It was made of energy, spiraling across all existence. Though she could not feel her physical form, Chase could follow this tunnel as it bore through time.
All at once she could see the inside of a conference room. It was a place she had been to once before. It was a room inside the secret compound of the World Corps. Yes, it was certainly that same place. During the attack on Pretoria, Arx had shed his powers and given BADGE what they needed to find the World Corps and finally stop them. Quark had transported her and Gar here, but they were too late. Right now, Judge Alpha, Gamma, and Delta were standing in the room watching screens displaying Ben Talos addressing the UN while the other showed the shuttle coming in toward Pretoria.
“No, this is not right. They weren’t here at that time.” She thought aloud.
Suddenly, the room froze as the rift in time opened. Drochah stepped through and changed his image to that of Delta.
Eight voices spoke in unison, “he is going to break time!”
This caused Delta to look up upon hearing that. “Who is here? Who is watching me?!”
As one, they all said, “Go! Never return! Go! Never again cross time! GO!”
Delta instantly transformed back into Drochah and was thrust into the rift, thrown back into his own time.
Chase left that scene and stood on the stairs in the back of the Operations center of BADGE. Director Nova stood before the screen, watching the shuttle return children to Pretoria in one window and the infiltration of the World Corps on the other.
Director Nova also appeared next to her.
“Director? But...how?”
“We are both outside the flow of time for the moment.”
“What happened? Did we defeat Drochah?”
“Yes, and no. We defeated him in the alternate future. But, in doing so, we were drawn into the time stream he used to alter history. We could stop him from doing what he did to change history in the first place. Drochah, now, never changed history and it will unfold as it should have.”
“Then how come I remember that? Shouldn’t we be back in our normal time frame, unaware of all the changes that will never happen?”
“We are touched by time in a special way, not unlike Drochah. We have time powers. We will recall the alternate history. So will Father Time, Peyton, Rutkowski, Santa, EB, and Quark.”
She asked, “what was that I saw? The conference room and Drochah appeared, and I think we sent him away.”
“That is exactly what happened. We all ended up at the point where he broke time. We could stop that moment from happening. And, together with our time powers, we banished him from using his time power ever again.”
“What now? Why are we standing here? Why are you down there and up here?”
They both looked up at the events unfolding before them. Nova said, “we are coming in sync with real time. Soon, we will both return to the place we should be at this moment when time broke.”
“What is happening? What are we watching?” She saw the shuttle lowering toward Pretoria and Ben Talos on the screen.
Nova quietly said, “we are watching events that cannot be changed. Drochah will not have broken time and things will turn out for the better. But there are dark events that must happen because they are part of real time.”
An icy feeling crawled over her skin. “The shuttle with the kids...”
“It cannot be changed.” He whispered as they both watched the augmented Torrin Wolf blast the shuttle and murder all the children being returned.
Chase covered her eyes and turned around. “No!”
“Why are you yelling?” Gar asked her.
Chase looked up and was now standing in the corridor outside the conference room on the World Corps’ secret base.
Chase looked around. “We’re here. The shuttle..what..where am I?”
Quarks smiled at her. “It’s a little confusing, I know. But this is finally the real timeline.”
“Quark!” She grabbed him in a hug.
“Yeah, yeah, the old duck is still quacking. It’s scary being torn in half, glad that never really happened.”
Gar frowned. “What are you two talking about?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.” Chase said.
Quark smiled. “I think we’re going to set things straight.” He held up a small computer device. “You just finished hacking into their security system, and I’ll broadcast this live. Hold on to your shorts. This world is about to get a bit of breaking news.”
Across the world, all networks were pre-empted by a hacked signal from the security camera inside the World Corps conference room. Alpha, Delta, and Gamma were oblivious to being observed.
“I don’t care what you tell them. Make sure the media is watching the public schools.” Gamma said.
Beta asked, “when?”
“In ten minutes. We’ll have the augment lay waste to all the Pretoria schools. Our sensors show kids in two buildings that are supposed to be safety zones. Make sure the cameras are focused on that area and then make it clear all the children are dead.”
“What if they don’t all die?” Beta asked.
Alpha said, “Don’t worry, our agents on the ground will slaughter any kids who don’t die in the attack...wait...what is that?”
Their computer systems displayed the fact that they were being broadcast across the planet.
“WE’RE LIVE!” Beta yelled.
Quark, Chase, and Gar came into the room just then. Quark said, “smile, you’re on candid camera.”
“TURN OFF THE SYSTEMS!” Alpha screeched.
Chase said, “good luck, I seriously rigged your systems.”
Quark laughed, “hey, world, check out the actual face of Delta.” He waved his hand, and the camouflage was dissolved, revealing the genuine alien face of Drochah.
“What the hell are you?” Alpha jumped back.
“Damnit!” Drochah reached out and murdered both Gamma and Alpha, and then attacked the computers.
Gar raced toward him. “He’s trying to destroy the evidence!”
“Like hell!” Quark hit Drochah with a quantum energy blast. Drochah screamed, then dissolved.
“What did you do?” Chase asked.
“Just unplugged his tether to our time. He’s back where he belongs. Let’s make sure we get those computers uploaded before the system defaults blow this place to heck.”
One week later...
Nova brushed off his the sleeve of his dress uniform as he watched the news being broadcast all over the world.
EB hopped over to him, “Come on, buddy, the party is downstairs and it won’t start till we’re there.”
“Coming.”
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