The Twilight of the Gods -- a story of Mantra, Chapter 9

 

The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS -- Chap. 9

A story of Mantra and Black September

 

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

 

You can easily judge the character of a man 

By how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

                                    By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

 

 

“Just what do you expect to accomplish by coming here?" Tark asked suddenly.

"I came find someone,” I said. “We have good reason to think that a very powerful ultra is soon going to make a stop here."

"So there’s a lot of this dimension jumping going on?"

"More than you'd guess."

"Are you working alone?"

I didn't want to tell “King Warstrike” too much and I especially didn’t want anyone looking for Gabriel. This wasn’t the Tark I knew and I still didn’t know if this version of him could be trusted. Tyrants are notoriously double-dealing, after all. "I'm helping a group from the Godwheel – a kind of race of super-scientific geniuses. They think that the woman we’re waiting for can help us, but she’s got to be handled carefully. Up to now she’s been a loose cannon. We need to convince her to join the team and cooperate.”

"I'll take your word for that. But now that you’ve seen what a mess we’re in here, I’d like to here about what’s going on in your America."

"Where I am, Brandon is president.”

“Brandon is still president?!” he exclaimed. “He was put out of office nine years ago, using the 25th Amendment. When the Deep State thought that their power structure was breaking down, they bombed Yellowstone.”

He next asked me for the date  that I came from and, when I told him, he shook his head. “Your world isn’t out of danger by a long shot! You can still get a Yellowstone of your own!”

“That’s a hideous thought. Now that I know about it, I’m going to do my best to head it off.”

There came a tapping at the door.

"It's open!" Warstrike yelled.

A uniformed man stepped over the threshold followed by a girl who wasn’t Evie.

"Daddy?" she said, looking at Warstrike.

"Shut the door behind you, Maverick," he told the guard. Then, to the brown-haired child, he said, “Come here, Jamie.”

So this was Jamie, the daughter of Warstrike and Mantra. She glanced at me without saying anything and then approached the king without fear, like a trusting child would approach her dad.

"This lady," the child said, "she's dressed like pictures of …"

“She’s your aunt Jennifer,” her father lied. “She’s your mother’s twin sister.”

It made me feel strange things looking at Mantra’s child. “I didn’t know that Mommy had a twin,” she said.

“Ah, yes she did,” Brandon answered. “Your mom and I thought Aunt Jennifer died years ago and so we thought telling you about her would only make you sad. Why don’t you give your auntie a nice big hug?”

As she turned and came toward me. I knelt to receive her at her own level. Jamie put out her arms and gave me a long, strong hug.

“Can I see what you look like without a mask?” Jamie asked, stepping back.

I obliged.

“You look just like Mommy! And you look like my sister Evie, too!”

“I never met your sister Evie,” I said, fibbing to fit the role that had been thrust upon me. “But Eden and I were so much alike that we could even fool our parents.”

What, I wondered, was my relationship to this child? If her mother was my temporal clone, our genetics would be the same. That would make me pretty much the twin sister to her mother – Jamie's aunt. I liked that idea; it made us close, but not so close as to create a messy relationship.

I regarded Warstrike. "Brandon, we have to talk about grownup things and Jamie shouldn’t have to listen to all that."

He nodded. "You’re probably right. Jamie, I'm going to have the guard take you back to your room."

"Can I tell Evie and Gus about Aunt Jennifer?" she asked.

Tark sent me a questioning look.

I said, "Small children shouldn’t be made to hold big secrets. They might swell up and go 'pop'! But, please, make me one small promise."

“What?” the girl asked.

“Don’t tell your brother and sister about me until this time tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“So I can have time to prepare a big surprise for them!” Actually, I was trying to avoid that meeting permanently. I knew that in one day’s time I’d be gone and the last remnant of this universe would be destroyed by the Nemesis Energy. Also, if the kids knew I was here, they’d come to call me a liar.  They would knew that Eden never had any sister, much less a twin sister.

Jamie laughed and said, “Okay!” Then her dad took her hand and led her to the door.

Once Tark and I were alone again, I said, "Your Mantra must have been a very different from me if she decided to marry you.”

“Why? Am I so bad a catch?”

“Hey, I’ve only been a woman for a couple of years. I don’t look at you as my type.”

"It was a forced decision. We had a baby on the way."

"Perfect," I said sarcastically.

He put his hand on my cloaked shoulder and this made me uneasy. "Those were terrible times,” he said. “Mantra and I became de facto leaders of a lot of frightened people – probably because we both had military experience with a knack for putting things into order. But it was lonely leading such a traumatized bunch. They needed to draw confidence from us. We had to shut everybody out emotionally so that no one would pick up on the fact that their leaders were feeling just about as messed up as was everybody else. We didn't have anyone to turn to for support, except each other."

"I get the picture," I said, not wanting to talk about such an uncomfortable subject.

"We all lost so much when Mantra died. The whole city, I mean. Nothing seemed to go right after that."

"I’m just glad that Mantra wasn’t to blame for the state that this city has fallen into! But just keep in mind that she and I were two absolutely different people."

"How different are you?" he asked.

"Well, I’m the version doesn’t want to get into bed with you. No offense, but that's not where my head is at. But I’ve been friends with my home version of Brandon Tark from the second we met.” Well, actually from the second time we me. The first time we met he’d dueled and killed me, having been told I was a terrorist.

“Mantra and I started out as very good friends, too,” Tark replied.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

He suddenly changed the subject. "Jamie isn’t good at keeping secrets. I hope she can manage it this time. But what will you say to the kids if they suddenly show up wanting to meet you?"

"I hope I can avoid that. I have a crucial job to concentrate on. If I fail, it’s going to be so bad. It will be like the whole Big Bang never happened."

"You come from the Dark Ages. Since when did a half-Polish Visigothic barbarian like Lukasz Theordoricson start believing in the Big Bang?"

“In the Twentieth Century, actually."

He seemed to scoff at that. "I used to buy into what they taught in school, too. But since then I’ve learned to think for myself.”

“Do you mean you’ve gotten religious?

“Okay, skip the subject,” Warstrike said. “But is it possible for you to go back and stop the Yellowstone thing?”

“If you’re asking if I could change the way your life turned out, that wouldn’t work.”

“How can you prevent the death of the Multiverse, if you can’t even stop one volcano?”

“The science is hard to grasp; this is how it was explained to me: Changing past events doesn’t change what’s already happened. When the past is meddled with, a new timeline is created at the instant that events are changed. But you in this world would not see anything happen. You’d still be stuck where you are. Your time-clones would experience a different life, but you and your people wouldn’t.”

He scowled. "That sucks. Well, by now I’m used to bad news. But what about that woman you’re looking for? Have I heard of her, or does she come from outer space?"

"Your counterpart in my world knows all about her. She’s called Amber Hunt."

"Whoa! Amber Hunt? That’s the nut case who almost cauterized the entire planet using gamma radiation. How can you depend on someone like that to save this Multiverse thing you believe in?”

"All I can say is that I’m working with people who think she’s salvageable. I found out that she used to be a simple college kid before she got ultra powers in a convoluted turn of events. It knocked her silly and she after that she went out of control doing horrible things."

“Is it smart to trust her? A mad dog isn’t responsible for its own sickness either, but it still has to be put down,” he said.

Then his expression changed.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I saw her in the skies over Los Angeles. She was glowing. Is it possible that a child might describe Amber Hunt as a 'Flaming Woman'?"

"I suppose she could. Why?"

"My daughter keeps dreaming about somebody that she calls the Flaming Woman."

My brow furrowed. "Tell me more."

"Lately, Jamie’s been saying things that make me think she’s inherited my power of precognition."

"If she can predict the arrival of a 'Flaming Woman,' why haven’t you?”

“You know how quirky my power can be. Or is your Tark different?"

"No, he’s not different."

Warstrike shrugged. "Anyway, Jamie has been dreaming that a Flaming Woman will come and do away with me away."

"That’s pretty specific. Why would Amber Hunt want to take you out?"

"I don't know. Did she have any relationship with Brandon Tark back where you come from?"

"None at all, not as far as I know."

“If she’s real, maybe I should kill her before she kills me."

I shook my head. "No, don’t think that way! If the Flaming Woman is Amber Hunt, we need her. Otherwise, the whole universe is going to be lost. She’s the only one we know of who has the power to stand up to a goddess of destruction called Nemesis. They’re destined to fight, but when they fight in the near future, she won’t be able to make a quick kill of it. She’ll beat Nemesis, but too late to save the Multiverse. We've got to capture Hunt and give her information how to destroy Nemesis more effectively.”

“And you know all this because you’ve seen it while time-traveling?”

“Yes! I’ve actually seen that final battle. If it plays out the way I saw it, we’re all doomed.”

"You’re asking me to just let things happen? I've only survived this long because I’ve been taking out my enemies the instant they’ve appear."

"Look at it this way. Now that you’ve been warned in advance, you can keep clear of her. My friends and I want to take her away as quickly as we can."

Tark clenched his teeth. "Don’t you know of anything that could help us here in this situation?"

"I wish I did. I don’t see how I can fix what’s wrong with this city in only a few hours. Have you offered the opposition peace terms – along with an offer to relinquish your authority?”

“If I did that, even my own people would turn against me. I think you’ve lived long enough to know what happens to most fallen kings.”

"Oh, yes. I understand where you’re coming from.”

“Listen, I'll make you a deal,” Tark said.

"What kind of deal?"

"I'll let everyone know about the Flaming Woman and explain that she has to be left to you and your allies, harmed. In return, I want you use what time you have to negotiate with the rebels so we don’t have to have any more killing."

“What do I tell them?”

“I don’t know. But if you feel like it, see what you can do.”

I thought I could like this guy, even after his reign of terror, but if that was true, I didn’t have time enough to find out.

"I’ll do what I can, but I don’t understand this situation the way your own Mantra used to. I’m a newbie here."

“What do you need to know?”

“I think I should first talk things over with the scientist guys,” I said. “But we've been skipping around what I think is the crucial question.”

"What question?"

"Am I a prisoner here, or what? If you want me to talk to your enemies, you’ll have to give me freedom of movement."

"I see your point," he said forlornly. "Do what you can do and help whoever you think you can help. I’m all out of ideas. I feel like Colonel Travis at the Alamo.”

"If I have to wing it, all I can promise is that I’ll do my damnest to be an honest broker. But I’ll can’t let anything get into the way of finding Amber Hunt."

“Just keep this in mind: If I’m taken out and shot, what’s going to happen to the kids?”

Oh, that was a low blow. Was I responsible for Jamie, or for every version of Gus and Evie in the Multiverse? Trying to bring peace to this place would take time I didn’t have.

“Like I said, I’ll do the best I can. What’s next?”

"You're free. Do you want a detail of bodyguards to go along with the white flag?"

I thought about that. "First –"

Another tapping at the door interrupted me. I tried to read the bio-signature of the person outside and it turned out to be a familiar one. A very familiar one. A shiver ran through me.

Warstrike went to the door, peered through the security slot, and lifted the latch.

The door opened upon a dark-haired girl in her middle teens.

It was Evie Blake.

#

She set her glance on me. Jamie had been right; her big sister was, in fact, the image of Eden Blake at her age, as I could attest from old photographs I’d seen. It was the same as seeing my second-grade daughter as a nearly-grown woman.

It registered on me that she wasn’t too shabbily dressed and she didn’t look underfed. I felt like asking how well Tark had been treating her and her brother. That bit of business shouldn’t have mattered to me, since I was a stranger from another reality, but it did.

But behind Evie an excited Jamie was standing. Tark had been right. His daughter was not good at keeping secrets.

"Jamie – Evie, come in," Warstrike said. He took Jamie’s hand as she came into the room. "Sweetie," he said, "did you dream about the Flaming Woman again since last time?"

She nodded. "Yes, Daddy. I was going to tell you about it, but I got excited when I met Auntie Jennifer."

"Mantra has told us that she also thinks that she knows about the Flaming Woman, too. We have to know as much about her as possible before she arrives."

The little girl veered my way. "Mantra, is the Flaming Woman coming to hurt us?"

I drew in a deep breath. "I believe she's coming, but I’m not sure if she wants to hurt anybody. I hope she’s a good person because I want to meet her and see if she’ll give us some help."

Jamie frowned. "How can she help us? She's bad, isn't she?"

I tried to smile. "I don't think she wants to be bad. I’m guessing that she’s just very mixed up about things. I need to talk some sense into her so she can help us save a lot of innocent people."

"Do you mean Daddy and our friends?"

"Yes, and other good people, too."

"You’re not any aunt of mine!" Evie suddenly declared.

I glanced her way. From her expression, I could see that young Miss Blake was not going to accept the same balderdash that I’d fed to her much younger sister. But the truth was so crazy that I didn’t know she could ever be convinced of it.

CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 10

 

Postcript note:

This is Christopher. We have to suspend the chapter by chapter publication of the novel "The Twilight of the Gods" temporarily. I'm engaged in preparing a different novel for publication (mainstream and hard copy) and it has to be ready to send to the publisher in less than six months time. It is a historical novel that requires researching, and research takes a lot of time. Moreover, I "sold" it to a publisher on the basis of the rough draft. And turning a rough draft into a publishable book take many edits. My usual goal is to edit a piece 10 times before I call it "professional." Just to get one polishing done took 3 months, with all the other commitments to my time. I have to free up more time for editing, a lot more time.

Starting in December I will be posting (instead of Twilight) the installments of a detective story called "The Big Switch." Copies of the stories early draft exist, but I have been polishing off and on for the last couple years and the current quality of the text is very high. Oh, it can use a little more polish, but I think I can prepare a postable copy of BS in about one day of work from now on, instead of four. 

I hope no one will be extremely disappointed, but Big Switch is a great story and, anyway, as soon as possible I will be resuming the posting of Aladdin's wonderful story, "The  Twilight of the Gods."

By the way, something is wrong with Blogger's comment text box. It will not accept my cursor. That is why I am putting this post script at the end of this chapter, instead of in the comment box, where it should more appropriately be placed. I hope the blog master reports this to Blogger, if he hasn't already.