"Sir, do you need something to eat?" One of the scientist asked him.
Torrik shook his head, "No. I want answers and I can't seem to find them."
"The rest of us are heading out for dinner. If you need anything, contact station Operations."
"Go on, have your dinner. I'll be fine." Torrik waved them out of the room, his eyes remaining fixed on the object before him.
There was a long, quiet pause as he was alone in the room. The strange computer devices were beeping softly and creating dancing lights, but they seemed utterly useless in his mind. Nothing provided answers they needed.
"Torrik, are you okay?" Dr. Henderson walked into the room.
"I'm fine."
"I was heading for dinner when I saw they hadn't sealed the lab. You can leave for a bit, get something to eat and rest."
"I don't need rest, I need answers." He said.
She said, "You sound like me. When I have a serious problem, I will set aside my health in pursuit of answers. It really doesn't help, in fact I find that it works against me."
Torrik said, "You don't understand. I haven't told Justin everything about my mission."
Dr. Henderson frowned at him and came around the table to draw his attention more to her. "What have you been keeping from us?"
"I wasn't keeping this from you because I didn't trust you, I kept it because I hoped you would never need to know."
"Tell me what you know. Any detail about this situation is vital."
Torrik said, "Months before I was sent on this mission, there was a strange incident at the Ghost Library..."
"The what?"
"It's a place where the memories of people are stored in mirrors and their image speaks from their memories."
"Fascinating. What happened?" She picked up a tablet to take notes.
"Some of the most ancient memory mirrors from the earliest days began giving out vague warnings. The memories within were recalling a time when something extremely dangerous was about to happen. They feared the world was about to end. A monster of incredible strength loomed in the distance and was ready to pounce. Our greatest minds studied the histories and spoke with these mirrors. All we could determine was that an apocalyptic event was stopped and that it's origins was the original home, the world we came from, Earth. However, they realized the event wasn't truly stopped, merely deferred. The end of a world was coming. And, if this world ends, so does ours. The two worlds are intricately connected."
Dr. Henderson took down some notes and then asked, "Why didn't you tell us this? Sounds pretty important."
"Because, my people believed it would be possible to upset this event again, to stop it before it started. We learned of the four beasts and knew that they had been reduced to gem stones. If we could obtain even one and keep it from the enemy, then the apocalypse would be deferred again, possibly stopped forever."
Justin walked into the room with Chase and EB at his side, "Sounds like your mission is more far reaching than you led us to believe."
Torrik said, "I apologize for not revealing all the details. I wanted to spare your world the fear this would cause. I really thought I could stop this more efficiently. I sorely underestimated our enemy."
"That is always the mistake that takes down the wisest heroes. If Nova has taught me anything, it is never to underestimate anyone. Don't worry, I still trust you, but I hope you have told us everything now."
"That is everything now. I just hope EB's plan works." Torrik looked down at the bunny.
EB smiled, "It will. Okay, so here it is. We were scared to have Chase use her powers to look into the past of this object because her doing this on those eye thingies has been bad. Like, totally bad. She was down for... well, you know the story. Anyway. When Dr. Henderson said this thing isn't magical, just has grass stains on it..."
"Residual energy readings," Dr. Henderson corrected.
"Yeah, that. Since it isn't magic, Chase should be fine. And, what better way of researching this than looking at its history?" He held up his paws to Chase.
Justin said, "Chase, you are free to do this or not. I know this magic has caused you serious
Chase said, "Sounds like we are facing the end of two worlds, a little headache is worth the risk."
Torrik said, "Maybe I can help."
"How?" Chase asked.
"I can't protect you from negative effects if there are any. However, I can project what you are seeing so we all see it."
"Really?"
EB asked, "How?"
"It is a seeing-eye spell, we use it with our trackers so we can see what they're seeing on the field. If her vision becomes that of the past she is seeing, then it should work the same."
"Sounds good. I'll get the popcorn..." EB was about to rush away when Justin stopped him.
Dr. Henderson released the tablet from the stasis field and it rested on the surface of the table. Chase walked over and spent a second preparing herself. With a quick motion, she grabbed it and everyone tensed up.
"I'm fine. I... don't feel anything wrong." Chase said.
Torrik put his hand up to her head and said a spell, a mark was left glowing on her forehead when he removed his hand.
A smoke filled the room and a projection lit up inside it. They all could see what she saw. The tablet in the lab, the scientists working on it, then it being brought to the station, then it being found in the waters of the sea. Time moved backward quickly for them. Once it was in the water, time zipped backward a blinding speed.
"Oh, it makes me dizzy," EB said.
Chase spoke as she continued searching this things past. "It takes getting used to. It's hard going this far back, my head is hurting."
Dr. Henderson said, "You can do it, I'm right here to help."
They watched the tablet suddenly lift off the seabed and float upward, returning from being thrown in. The tablet returned to the hand of some strange man in ragged clothes. He had others with him, all peering at it as he put a red stone into it, which he actually stole from it before discarding it into the sea.
"The eye! That was the Eye of Charybdis!" Torrik called out.
"Someone stole it in the past. But who?" Justin asked.
Dr. Henderson said, "I'm recording this, we can check with the historical computers."
Time continued backward as the tablet now rested in a room full of weapons and maps. They all saw Nova, dressed in strange clothes and armor, returning the blue Eye of the Hydra, which was when he had taken it to hide it in the past.
Chase held her head and groaned. "This is going too far back, I can't..."
EB hopped up and put his paws on her, an energy flowing from him to her, "Keep going! I'll help!"
She stopped being in pain and they watched Nova now returning the Eye of Fenrir. Then, both were removed in the past. Finally, he was carving something into the stone with a metal tool.
Chase fell down and held her head. Dr. Henderson rushed over and injected a medicine into her arm. The cloud vision evaporated quickly and the lab was back to normal.
"Chase! Are you all right?" Justin knelt down.
EB was right beside her with Torrik kneeling next to her as well. She said, "I'll be fine. That was just harder than I expected. Please, tell me you guys got all that, I can't do that again."
Dr. Henderson checked her computers. "Yes, the visual recording was complete. We have everything."
Justin said, "Doctor, send that to Operations, every station. Command all the robots to begin searching every last detail of the images, no matter how insignificant. EB, you're the expert on Nova, go help them look over the images. Point out anything that might be important."
EB gave a quick salute, "On it, boss," and zipped away.
Torrik helped Chase to her feet. "That was a brave thing you did."
"It was my duty."
Justin said, "I just hope this gives us an edge, something to go on."
The comms all beeped loudly and Strange Quark in Operations came through, "Justin, craps hitting the fan. Midgard is stomping all over the world in his search for FAANG, you've got some seriously pissed world leaders."
"Damn."
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