The Timely Affair

THE TIMELY AFFAIR

“The future…my past…your present…its all connected…” Emperor Henry began to cough again, this time for at least 5 minutes.

      “Oh please my love don’t speak.” Empress Anne whispered as her 600 year-old husband who didn’t look a day over 50 (and neither did she for that matter), hacked up blood. Old age had finally caught up with him. Tripping over his own feet down the spiral staircase from his own lab in the palace had broken a couple ribs and punctured a lung that refused to heal.

               Henry looked deeply into his bride’s eyes. How sorry he was for how he had focused on work instead of finding love first! Back when the American Capitalist Empire had nearly collapsed until he had become it’s last President and only Emperor had he considered marriage. In fact, he had only gotten married because it was necessary. But Anne had proven to be a faithful wife and his proof of true love. To think their timelines had been connected since they had married in another reincarnation of themselves thousands of years ago! Would he find her in the next life if he died tonight? Or was his wife’s dream correct and he would go to heaven when he died this time? Was their cycle of reincarnation truly over, now that they had both lived to adulthood? He closed his eyes, and tears began to spill out. He tried to keep them in, but couldn’t. He had never been the type to cry in front of anyone, but here, on his deathbed, he just couldn’t help it. He believed in GOD and wanted to be with GOD, but he was also afraid to leave his wife. What if the One World Government (minus a few islands) that he had set up, along with the Lunar, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Solar, Jupiter, and Asteroid Bases collapsed after his death? Would Anne be killed? “GOD please take care of Anne!” he begged in his mind.

               “Don’t worry. I shall watch over your wife for you. I give you my word.” A young voice said, overflowing with emotion. Emperor Henry opened his eyes. Staffer was standing with his arm over Anne. Henry smiled. Staffer was gay and loved Emperor Henry from afar, even though the Emperor had clearly told him he loved Anne only. Staffer would do anything for Emperor Henry even after Henry was gone. “GOD bless you Staffer.” Henry whispered.

               “Anne.” Emperor Henry said, his voice growing desperate. “Anne!”

               “I’m right here Henry.” Empress Anne said, her 400 year-old self grabbing ahold of Henry’s right hand.

               “Anne…I…love….you! I….love….you!” Emperor Henry began to speak in laboring tones again.

               “I love you too Henry!” Empress Anne said.

               “Anne…I…lo…” Emperor Henry sighed and quietly passed away. The liquid screen that hung suspended in the air showed that Emperor Henry was indeed dead. Empress Anne began to cry.

               The air immediately became tense and quiet. Everyone looked nervously at each other. Then the doctor spoke.

“Emperor Henry overcame the Time Emperor who ruled the United States secretly before Henry became Emperor. I’m sure he has done something to the timelines to ensure his legacy stays. So it won’t do us any good to do anything against his wishes.”

“How could you even suggest such a thing?” Empress Anne asked.

               “Empress, with all due respect, I’m sure you can’t understand such things, suffering as you are from Stockholm Syndrome…” the doctor began.

               “Stockholm…doctor you are sadly mistaken! Here, I’ll show you!” and Empress Anne grabbed one of her many necklaces, one that looked like a golden pocketwatch covered with green emeralds and pressed it, grabbing the doctor by the shoulder as she did so.

               “Let’s reverse the clock and return as ghosts to a former time.” Empress Anne whispered.

It was quick and sweet, no theatrics. One second they were in the former Emperor’s bedchamber, and the next second they were ghosts in the Royal Court 400 years ago.

“Where, what, did you just-time travel?” the doctor sputtered.

“Yeah, so what?” Empress Anne asked.

“It’s strictly forbidden!” the doctor retorted.

“Except for the Emperor and I.” Empress Anne smiled. “Look, there’s me.” She pointed off to the side. The doctor looked. A much younger version of the queen and empress stood over by a tree, accompanied by the Emperor.

“I picked you because you remembered. You remembered everything. How alien politics worked, how we first met, and even our first wedding.” The emperor was saying in a desperate voice.

Empress Anne looked frightened. “I don’t know what you are talking about. You had me and thousands of other girls brought to your palace so you could choose a bride. You had us all pass through a series of challenges that made no sense. In the end, the challenges didn’t make a difference. What mattered were the dreams we had throughout our life. We, I, told you several of my dreams and based on those you chose me as queen, empress. Now please, leave me in peace. Don’t you have things to do now that you’ve conquered the entire planet?”

“I could care less about the planet. What I care about is you. I’ve spent entire lifetimes searching for you.” The Emperor said, taking Anne’s arm. She gasped and stared at him in fear. He looked deep into her eyes and then let her go. “You don’t remember.” He said. “You may never remember. It doesn’t matter. I’ll love you anyway.” And he walked away.

“And I did grow to love him. He treated me kindly and respectfully, with love too.” The elderly Empress Anne said.

“That may be true, he did always treat you kindly and respectfully.” The doctor relented. “But he also had to maintain a certain image.”

“Image?” Empress Anne asked, slowly turning her head to stare at him.

“Yes, the I found my true love from a past life and I still love her and will always love her in this life as well, image. A true love story that has captured the imagination of the entire Empire from Jupiter to Naples, from Capitur to the berries on the Sun, almost EVERYONE has heard the story and has fallen in love with the idea of the Emperor’s lost and found bride. How could you have not noticed it? The entire entertainment structure is dominated by it, perfumes and fashion overwhelm the senses based upon the story, and even the legal system has accepted past lives marriages as binding. Didn’t you know?” the doctor asked in a sarcastic tone.

“I knew that I just didn’t think that,”

“That your marriage was taken that way? Well yes it was. And you are still a poor innocent victim of an evil man.” The doctor said. “Now if you will kindly return me to my own time-“

“I can prove to you that he isn’t evil.” Empress Anne said. She banged her hand on her pocketwatch and off they clicked.

               This time they arrived at the year 2022. The year it all changed. The year the Emperor conquered the world, killing the evil Time Traveler in one sweeping blow. When he revealed himself as Q-Anon and took over the United States of America, before gobbling up the UN and the other nations of the world.

               “Some called him Death, others Satan. Most Christians call him the Anti-Christ because he united the world. But most don’t realize who he truly was.” Empress Anne said.

               “And what was that?” the doctor asked bending over and breathing hard. Time travel could be hard on an elderly person’s heart if they didn’t keep in shape.

               “Savior of Children.” Empress Anne said, pointing. The doctor looked. In front of them was a hill in the middle of a public park. The hill began to tremble. Then without a sound, or any warning at all, the hill’s face was removed as if it was a shower curtain, and in its place was a cave, and out of it stepped a young man in complete all black clothing, mask, and earrings, and about 250 children, mostly about 4 years old.

               “So he saves a few children from sex slavery in The United States of America or whatever. Whoopiido. So did others.” The doctor said.

               “Yes, others who all put their feet down and randomly started sniffing out sex slavery places or brothels and human trafficking sites and drug houses and just entering with guns and raising cane until the slaves were freed. And then in the middle of it all, Q had an operation infiltrated and set off on a global scale. That escape you just saw? It was one in 3 billion. Literally. The best part? A lot of the corrupt cops and politicians were caught red-handed including President Poe Aidem of the good ole, USA. They were taken into custody immediately which started the third US Civil War and opened a way for the Emperor to take control. So you see the Emperor isn’t a bad man just because he rules the world. He is good. And because of him pedophilia has been all but stamped out.”

               “All right, all right, you got me there.” The doctor sighed. “I guess the Emperor has done some good after all. I’ve forgotten how bad it was back in those days. Why, they even used to use fetus cells in the making of some Covid vaccines, and that led to the Zombie Virus Crises in late 2021. Imagine! Using human DNA! The very idea!”

               “Yes well, before you get too judgmental, isn’t there something you better say to me?” Empress Anne asked.

               “Like what?” the doctor asked.

               “Like, your sorry?” Empress Anne said.

               “Oh well, alright then. I’m sorry for being an as-astronomically wearisome person.” The doctor said, shaking hands with Empress Anne.

               “Thank you.” Empress Anne smiled.

               “Can we go back now? Time travel makes me nervous.” The doctor said.

               “Really? I didn’t notice.” Empress Anne smiled. She beat upon her pocketwatch one last time, and they returned to the future.