Half the Truth - Part II

When the shine of the last star fades away, the universe would succumb to eternal darkness, and all of galactic civilization would be erased from history. Zeltrex, the unkillable soldier, the destroyer of galaxies, would be all that was left at the end. The fate of the universe rested in the hands of the lone time traveler, the last human alive in the future, and the great wizard of the past.  

***

“Whatever you do, do not engage Zeltrex. Do what you must to stay alive. Should I die here, then you have to carry on and leave me behind. Is that clear?”

I looked at Ace, noticed the weight of his burden, and shook my head. “No,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “One life is just as important as a trillion.” 

He seemed annoyed by that. "Do you even understand the concept of a trillion lives? You could spend a lifetime counting to that number and still reach nowhere near it!" 

“Greater good does not mean greater numbers. It is measured by the strength of the smallest individual. If you sacrifice a single link in a chain, it will collapse. If you are willing to put one life before another, sacrificing one to save trillions, you are taking a link out of the chain.”

He raised an eyebrow, accepting the logic, yet waging a war inside his mind.

"Ace, you cannot devalue your life beneath another. These eyes, you see, can see more than what light reflects. You clearly care whether you're human or not. Take your scarf, for example. It stands out from your armor and uniform, yet you still choose to wear it. Why? Because you hold onto it as dear as you hold on to your humanity. Sentiment - that's what makes us human. Even for something as menial as a tattered scarf."

I straightened his scarf to drive my point home. I could tell that my words reached his heart as we clasped hands. We knew the stakes ahead of us and were ready to accept them.

A sudden blast jolted the ship. Warning lights and sirens began to flash. Deflector shield critical. Zeltrex had arrived. 

“Time to go,” I said.

“Be careful,” he said. “Do not engage Zeltrex in battle. Even with your magic, you haven’t got the power to match something that can rip open stars in half. I’ll do my best to lure him to me.” 

I nodded. “See you soon, Ace.”

A bright light flashed and I rode the time-stream to Ace’s past once more. I was starting to get the hang of it.

As I appeared on board Ace’s ship, it looked exactly like it did in the present - with one major difference. There were bodies scattered everywhere.

By the Void…

Screens of light hung from the walls, all flashing red. A strange beeping emanated throughout the ship, like that of an alarm bell. Sparks zapped from cracks in the ship’s haul and dangling wires. Everything looked like it was falling apart.

I ran to the nearest person lying in the corridor, a woman wearing some kind of uniform. She was dead. AYR’s crew, massacred.

I steeled myself against the sight of death and searched for survivors. I found an older man leaning against the wall, with a steel beam piercing his gut. His eyes widened as he saw me. He wanted to say something but could only cough up blood.

“I am a friend,” I said and knelt beside him. I placed my hand gently on his chest and a flash of green light pulsed from my palm, healing magic surging through the wounded man.

He took a sharp inhale. I knew his wounds were too severe to save him, but perhaps he could tell me what happened here.

“It came,” the man said, his face a little more relaxed. “It hunted us down like dogs… We’re the last… All that remains of humanity…”

The man’s words tore at my soul.

“AYR,” I said. “Your captain. Where is he?”

“So many dead,” the man’s eyes grew tired. “Billions perished… my friends and family…”

“We can save them, prevent all this from happening. But you have to help me. Where can I find AYR?” The ship was big and I couldn’t waste time searching.

“Hangar...,” the man said. “Captain led a squadron of fighter pilots…” He trailed off and I could tell life was leaving him. All I could do was stay and make his passage painless.

When his eyes closed, I slammed a hand at the wall.

“Hangar,” I said. I saw Ace doing something similar once, and sure enough, a screen of light appeared and showed me a map of the ship. A line indicated where I had to go.

Just as I approached the door to the hangar, I heard an explosion going off and the whole ship shook. Hold on, Ace.

I rounded the corner and slammed a fist on the screen at the door, infusing it with a little magic. The door opened. And I saw the monster for the first time.

Ace was lying on the floor, his clothes smoldering as if from a burst of dragon-fire. He wasn’t moving, and above him, a figure loomed. Zeltrex…

“It’s over,” the figure said. It looked human, only it wasn’t. Its skin was burned and peeled off at places - presumably from Ace’s hand-blaster - revealing a steel body underneath. I noticed half its face was burned, but the skin was already regrowing itself over the damaged parts.

“The last human,” the soldier said with contempt. “Your tyranny ends now.” It pointed its arm, morphed into a blaster, at Ace’s head. The blaster went off…

...but it never hit Ace’s head, as I lashed onto his body with magic and pulled him closer to myself. Zeltrex blasted a hole in the hangar floor and watched dumbfounded as Ace’s body skidded on the floor, seemingly on its own.

Zeltrex followed with its gaze until it saw me. “Who are you?”

“A thorn in your foot,” I said and telekinetically flung a fighter-ship into it. The soldier did not anticipate my powers and the metal bird struck it from behind, causing it to fall on one knee.

I wasted no time, picked up the unconscious Ace, and heaved him over my shoulder. The man weighed more than I expected.

“I will pull you out then, thorn!” Zeltrex shouted from behind and shot a blast of energy. I barely raised my arm in time to conjure up a protective barrier, deflecting the brunt of the attack. 

I pushed through the pain and carried Ace out of the hangar and around the corner, where I put him down again. Then I headed back to the hangar and did something that went against all my instincts.

I ran towards the murderer of 150 billion, instead of away from it. I needed to touch Zeltrex physically for my next spell to work.

I created multiple illusions of myself, to confuse Zeltrex. It now looked like a dozen wizards were running at it from all directions. The rogue soldier fired its blaster and evaporated a few of my images, but missed me. The remaining images mirrored my actions and as I ran close enough to touch it, Zeltrex was surrounded by my phantom wizards, sending its metal fist through them.

I touched Zeltrex’s back. A blue pulse of light went from my hand and ran across its body, up to its head, where it seeped into its eyes. 

“What is this?!” the soldier bellowed, temporarily blinded. It tried whipping its eyes free of my spell.

“Your future,” I said.

I showed the soldier a vision, one in which Ace destroys it during an apocalyptic fight. With my magic, the vision etched itself deep into Zeltrex’s memory as factual reality. The soldier was now convinced that Ace would kill it in the future.

History cannot be easily rewritten, Ace had once said. So if Zeltrex believes its fate is already determined in the future, killing Ace would not save it. It would have to delete Ace from existence altogether. By sending him in the rift.

I lingered in the hangar just long enough to see Zeltrex starting to tamper with Ace’s time-machine. The soldier was so preoccupied with the vision that it didn’t see me.

I smiled. This crazy plan could actually work. 

I ran back to where I left Ace and he was still unconscious. Wishing I could do more, I knelt beside my friend and placed a hand on his shoulder, healing his wounds.

“The pain that you endured is finally about to pay off,” I told him. Then I noticed his scarf was hanging from his neck and I readjusted it.

“Gotta look presentable there, Ace!”

Then I slammed my hands together and traveled back to the present timeline.

As I reappeared in the present, something was wrong. Ace’s ship was gone, blown to smithereens. The cold, airless brutality of space embraced me and I felt life seeping out from me, as I drifted through to space.

I had to do something fast, or I’d die. I scanned my surroundings and felt for the presence of anything that could help me. Amongst the metal debris suspended in space, I sensed a lingering pocket of air trapped inside a damaged ship compartment. It was leaking air fast, but it was just what I needed. 

I waved my hands, feeling them freezing in the cold void, and telekinetically pulled the compartment towards me. I crushed it with my mind and commanded the air to wrap itself around me, forming a bubble of atmosphere. 

I could breathe again. But I had to sacrifice a good part of that precious air to make a fire in my hand - or else I’d freeze to death. The fire was magical, but it still burned air and gave off heat. My life was on a timer.

Ace.

I took a moment to gather myself and looked around for my charismatic friend. How would I ever find him among all that debris? Chunks of metal and broken rocks floated around, dotting the blackness of space like a swarm of flies.

I noticed a flash of light at the corner of my eye and turned around. There he was. And there it was.

They hung in space, engaged in a death grip. Zeltrex held Ace by the back of his head and the flash of light I saw was Ace firing his blaster in the soldier’s face.

Ace was too far away to reach with my magic. I had to get over there and pull him out of that death grip before Zeltrex crushes his head.

But I couldn’t move! I was weightless, floating in space, surrounded by my air bubble. I tried wiggling my arms and legs, but that got me nowhere. I tried swimming but ended up spinning in place. It was infuriating like seven hells!

What does Ace see in space travel that’s so great? I thought, frustrated. I looked over at Ace and Zeltrex. Though I couldn’t hear anything, I noticed them conversing, judging by the movement of their mouths. 

Good, keep it distracted until I get to you.

A metal plate floated past me and I bumped into it with my foot. I was able to push off it, gaining some speed. An idea crossed my mind.

I used my magic to pull the nearby debris towards me. Metal plates and rocks stopped bumping randomly against each other and began moving towards me. I pushed them with my mind and positioned them to form a ‘stepping-stone’ path across space, to Zeltrex and Ace. Remembering a time when I crossed a raging river as a child, jumping from one stone to the other, I pushed from one metal plate to the other until I was gliding in the right direction.

Not a moment too soon. I saw Ace’s body tense up with pain, his expression agonizing. As I approached him, my air bubble extended through both him and Zeltrex and could finally hear what they were saying.

“Remember me?”

“You!” Zeltrex bellowed as it noticed me. The expression on its face was pure anger and… was that a hint of fear behind its eyes?

“That’s right,” I said. “Ace told me to show you a future where he kills you. He escaped the time rift by my help and got you to chase him here. Do you recognize where here is?”

Zeltrex’s eyes darted all over. It recognized we were in the time rift, the place I showed it the vision of its death. The place that it created to trap Ace, and the palace that would ultimately be its defeat.   

“Close it, now!” Ace screamed. “Delete us from history!” 

Zeltrex grabbed his neck and pointed its blaster at Ace’s head. “Close it and he dies. I know you too well, wizard. You treasure all life, especially that of your friend. Retreat and I’ll spare him.”

“Don’t listen to it! The lives of trillions are at stake!” 

My heart skipped a beat, seeing Ace’s life hanging by a thread. But it wasn’t only Ace’s life on the line… the lives of everyone who ever lived and who would ever live, all hung on my next decision.

Save Ace, and risk the lives of trillions? Or abandon my friend, sacrifice one life, and save trillions? 

The answer was simple.

Oh, Zeltrex. You know nothing.

“One life is equally significant as a trillion,” I said and snapped my fingers. I was saving all my magic for this moment. A flash of light erupted from the snap and as it subsided, Ace was floating next to me, freed from Zeltrex’s grasp. The soldier looked at its empty hands and then gazed at me, then at Ace, bewildered.

“Begone, abomination of humanity!” I shouted and closed the time rift, trapping Zeltrex within. With the last drops of my strength, I shoved my hands forward and sealed the rift. 

It was over. Zeltrex would be erased from history as the rift evaporated from the flow of time. By the Void, we won...

I could hardly believe it. Ace released a sigh of relief. He looked at his scarf, then at me and his smug expression was back.

“You cast a teleportation spell on my scarf, didn’t you?”

“Not teleportation,” I said and returned the smirk. “Time travel. Just an instant to the future from my side, as history, should be.”

We looked at each other, appreciating what all we’ve been through. Then, a sudden surge of weakness stopped me. 

“What’s happening, Ace?”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “With Zeltrex erased from history, the flow of time is correcting itself. But I’m afraid for us, it means the memory we have of each other will also fade. Including your knowledge of the time-spell.”

My life’s work. “But there’s so much I am yet to learn. So much to discover. I’ve not even had a chance to thank you properly.”

“You’re sacrificing the knowledge you’ve spent your life seeking for the sake of trillions. If anything, I should be thanking you.”

“And what of our friendship?” I asked, not ready to say goodbye so soon. I barely got to know this man, but he already became a dear friend. “Will that fade out of existence too?”

He smiled sadly and reached out a hand. 

“Somehow,” he said, “I feel our paths are forever intertwined among the currents of time. I’m sure we’ll meet again. Though it might be as strangers, I have no doubt our bond will flourish at an instant.”

I took his hand. And as I looked into his eyes, both of us fading from reality, I knew with certainty what he said was true. The bond that brought us together was bigger than both of us, stronger than time itself.

“Take care Ace. I’ll continue to look for you in the stars.”

“You too Harken. Till the currents of time pull us together once more…”

***

I sat by the fire, gazing up at the stars. The night sky was full of them. For some reason, I felt immense gratitude for the stars that night, as I realized they could have just as easily not been up there. I couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow we were all lucky to be here. 

I was so enthralled by the beauty of the stars that I didn’t notice a stranger approaching my fire.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" he said. I turned around and noticed a man standing by the edge of the fire.

“By the void, but they are,” I replied, surprised at how relaxed I felt at the sight of a complete stranger. “Nothing on Earth could compare to such beauty that’s out there.”

“You’d be surprised. Being up there all the time, you’d eventually miss all the beauty down here.”

“You speak as if you are not from this world.” I chuckled inside. Who was I to talk, being born in the void. It would be nice to talk to someone equally bizarre as myself. “They call me Harken,” I said and offered a hand.

“You can call me Ace,” he said. 

As I shook his hand, I noticed it wasn’t flesh, but metal. He wore a neatly tailored uniform embroidered with fine patches of cloth and metal, a brown scarf wrapped around his neck. It gave him the appearance of a leader, perhaps a noble, or a battle commander. A hard man. A warrior.

I gazed into his eyes and behind my own reflection, I could see deep intelligence in them. 

I felt a sense of familiarity with this man that I could not explain. Somehow, strangely, I knew him. Like one knows a reflection they see in the mirror. Even though he looked nothing like me, I recognized a part of myself as I looked into his eyes.