Metastasis, Part 29: End of Time
Part 1: Quarantine
Part 2: Odd Jobs
Part 3: Shuck
Part 4: The Old North
Part 5: Dirty Dave
Part 6: Multipliers
Part 7: Kilogold
Part 8: Analysis
Part 9: Reversal
Part 10: Miss Meta
Part 11: The Fourth Consortium
Part 12: Young Ghost
Part 13: Dungeon Diving
Part 14: Puzzles
Part 15: Calm Before the Storm
Part 16: Eventual
Part 17: Changing History
Part 18: The Gaze
Part 19: Panic
Part 20: Accountability
Part 21: All Good Things
Part 22: Mental Gymnastics
Part 23: Shadow Tactics
Part 24: Timeline Descynchronization
Part 25: Resurgence
Part 26: Doomsday Cult
Part 27: Time Raid
Part 28: King of Time
Synopsis(spoilers ahead if you want to read the story from the beginning)
Victor Meta is a time traveler who lived with his wife Janet and his young daughter Mira in a quaint timeline on the edge of obscurity. However, one day he was ambushed by soldiers of the Legion, and was forced to ally with a con artist named Shuck to save them from certain doom. By carefully manipulating time, he was barely successful, thanks to additional help surprisingly provided by his own daughter, now an adult time traveler.
But all of that pales in comparison to the revelation that Mira brings. They were not alone in being targeted. The time traveling family of Meta has been attacked throughout history. Ghost, another Gatekeeper who helped Dante Meta escape the coordinated assault, has joined the effort alongside that same Meta to find the masterminds behind the attack. And now, they all are working together to unravel the mystery of the Legion's ability to coordinate throughout time.
They now find themselves in the middle of a veritable warzone, facing contorted monsters called Vorpals. With few options left and other lives at stake, they throw in with a group of survivors to try holding back the encroaching horde. But it proved too much, and with their backs against the wall, Shuck played his trump card, ironically in the form of a summoning card.
With the overwhelming power of Panic, the group is now safe. For the moment. But after much turmoil, Victor has accomplished his goal. With a time and place to target the so called True King of Time, all that remains is to finish what they started.
The room might as well have been completely plated in gold. The ancient Archian Bear rug spanning the entire room’s floor, hand painted portraits created with clear skill and creative flair, and diamond throne on which a slightly surprised king sat made it clear the Legion were not wanting for funding. But the number of guards standing by with weapons at the ready were not encouraging.
The king, who had a book half open in one hand while he reclined with his arm propping him up on the throne’s armrest, shut it casually with a soft thud. “Right on time.”
Victor looked at Shuck. “What is this? No one besides the three of us could have possibly known the time code.”
The king laughed slightly as he stood up, walking closer with arms behind his back. He wore a regal robe, and a rather ostentatious crown beset with precious gems of all colors. He was clearly old, with a substantial but neatly kept white beard, but he was neither overweight nor frail. Overall, he seemed to be in good health for his age. The king spoke with authority, as would be expected given his trappings and position. “Is it not obvious? You three have a traitor in your midst, one not even aware yet what he has been taking a part of.”
“That’s impossible! None of us have-”
“Not merely one that you know. One of you three. I’m curious… can you guess who?”
Mira stepped between Victor and Shuck, who were both glaring at each other with suspicion. “Wait, both of you! It’s a lie, he’s just trying to trick us! He wants us to fight each other instead of him!”
The king smiled slyly, addressing Mira directly. “Why would I need to do that? Look around. You’ve already lost. I have the power to defeat you three on my own, but someone with true power has no need to debase themselves with such direct actions. Have you not learned anything about how we work?”
Mira gained a rare level of confidence as she responded, walking up to the king as several guards now pointed their weapons solely at her. “It’s because you fear us… that’s the whole point of the Legion. You aren’t trying to build something of your own, you are looking to destroy. To tear apart families, and-”
The king raised a finger in objection. “Don’t lie. I know that you know what our goal is. The end of Pause, and the continuation of history. Our tactics are not a goal, but a means to end. What about you Meta? You have been known to lie, infiltrate, and even assassinate to accomplish your own goals. Do you think you are so different than us?”
“No! We would never do anything like that. Tell him, Victor!”
After several seconds, Mira turned to her father at his continued silence. “Tell him…”
She grew concerned. “But… but you never did anything like that, right? When working with… those people you mentioned…”
Victor was silent as the king chuckled, walking back to stand immediately in front of his throne. “My, my… were you always this naive? It’s unfortunate that you had to come all this way to find out, but yes, the Meta are hardly guiltless. They have committed many an atrocity while only allowing their accomplishments to see the light of day. Why would they let it slip out when something goes wrong, and they must tie up loose ends? It would lead to too many people asking questions.”
Mira now looked back and forth between Shuck and Victor, now suspicious herself. After thinking about it, she shook her head, reaffirmed in her first conclusion as she glared at the king. The king continued. “And now, here you three are. Mira, Victor, and Shuck, victims of your own idealism. You actually thought you could accomplish what the rest of your extended, conspiratorial, manipulative family could not. No matter how in control you think you are, there is always that one unknown person behind the curtain pulling your strings to make you dance. He is the one that really calls the shots, and now you have come face to face with him… and I must say, I’m not impressed.”
Mira looked at the man with a scowl. “You aren’t untouchable… we’ve shown exactly that.”
The king raised a single eyebrow. “Really? Do tell how you came to that conclusion.”
“We’re here, aren’t we?”
“That was never a question. I’ve known for nearly my entire life that this moment would eventually come to pass. It’s written down in here…”
The king held up a leather bound book. “The Master Agenda. Only one, this single book is what you have been after. It holds the keys to absolutely everything we do.”
Victor and Shuck remained silent, keenly aware that Mira was continuing to dig for information while they tried to think of a plan. “How? Such a book would need to be thousands upon thousands of pages long to contain everything.”
The king flipped open the book, and the room darkened as blinding light burst from the pages. Along the walls and ceiling, floating images and words spun about, all pulled back in as the king shut the book closed again. “As you can see, it’s no normal book… not only does it contain unfathomable amounts of information, it’s practically indestructible. So don’t bother thinking you could pull it out of my hand to destroy it in a futile attempt to sabotage our future efforts. We’ve planned for every contingency, and this meeting is going exactly according to plan.”
“And what is your plan, exactly?”
“Victor will be executed, while you and Shuck will be returned after we reset your short term memory. No knowledge will leave this room in the hands of any non-Legion. However, there is one alternative. You may choose to join the Legion. Even Victor may join, if he wishes to avoid his summary execution.”
Mira stared at the king, confused. “Wait… you are asking us to join? After all this? Absolutely not! Are you insane?”
The king sighed. “Yes, that decision has been foretold… but it should still be offered, nevertheless.”
Shuck spoke up. “Now, wait a minute. Victor gets execution, but I and Mira only get a mind wipe? Why the disparity?”
“Victor has served his purpose in history. We wish for him to be disposed of. But you and Mira cannot be removed. You still have a part to play. Specifically, Mira must continue on, and eventually perish at the appropriate time. Since you won’t be remembering this anyways, and I’m aware you have some level of knowledge about this, I can tell you exactly how you die.”
Mira froze, holding her breath unconsciously as the king continued with a cold disregard for her clear discomfort. “You will be chasing your husband, Shuck, across time. He left you after he discovered you had been unfaithful.”
Not Mira, but Shuck, shouted at the king. “You watch your mouth! I’m not going to sit here and-”
The king continued, undaunted, while the guards moved slightly closer to remind their prisoners of their presence. “You almost find him. Almost. But an unexpected Vorpal attack overwhelms you. If Shuck had been by your side, you likely could have held them off and survived… but he was not there. No one came to help you. The last of the Vorpals killed you, and Shuck arrived just in time to end your Vorpal killer and hold your dying body in his arms as you dissolved to dust. And that was the moment…”
The king, with tears in his eyes and voice shaky, faced the party directly. “That was the moment he knew things must change. He tried to reverse time, but Mira’s pocketwatch was gone. Any other pocketwatch, with proper study and adjustment, though, could still work. They were all the same piece of infinity, after all. But you disgusting, short sighted Meta… you wouldn’t let me. Not even to bring back one of your own… not even Victor.”
Shuck, confused, looked back at Victor, then to a shocked Mira, then to the king. “No. That can’t be right.”
“Think about it, Shuck. You are merely an earlier version of myself. You can follow the train of logic, even though you still can’t grasp the emotional turmoil before you are forced to experience it yourself.”
Shuck grew combative. “You aren’t me! You can’t be me, and weaving a ridiculous story can’t convince me! That’s no proof!”
“Really? All of you. Ask me anything. Anything Shuck would know. I can answer all of it, perfectly.”
Mira and Shuck, and even Victor at times, asked about everything they could think. When things happened, how things happened, favorite vacation spots, least favorite people. Any and all details were answered perfectly, not even the smallest detail being incorrect. The True King of Time managed to know absolutely everything about Shuck, and everything Shuck would know about everything else. Victor grew more grim as the fact became harder to dispute, up to the point where they ran out of questions. The king let slip a sad smile. “It’s almost nostalgic, you know. Revisiting these various points in my own history. I remember it all so clearly, but it was always a far off thing. I can’t help getting a bit emotional being forced to relive things like this. And I mean that quite literally, as I suppose this is technically the second time I’ve been at this point of history.”
Victor stepped forward. “We could still just kill you.”
Both Shuck and Mira looked at Victor with alarm as he continued, while the king simply cocked his head with a humored expression. “You are Shuck in the future, not the past. Killing you right here, right now, is logically possible.”
The king responded with condescension. “I’ve been here before. I know how things play out; it’s all written down, and I know you don’t have the guts to try. Opposing this factual account is a time toggle, and will simply kill you. Since we planned to kill you anyways, I will let you find out whether you were stupid enough to try changing known history.”
Victor wrapped his fists with gravity, staring down the king with rage. “You made a fatal mistake, King. You thought of your opponents as unaware fools.”
Mira threw a time bubble up around them, and Victor nearly collapsed from the tension. It had been disturbingly close, but all hostile members of the room were just outside its perimeter, frozen in time. “Took you long enough. I might have picked up on you and Shuck signaling me that things were not as they seemed, and that Mira was preparing a time bubble, but I can only grandstand for so long.”
Mira smirked. “Apologies, but I wanted to be sure. If everything else wasn’t enough, and could be excused as him refreshing his memory, that last line about remembering things clearly was a bridge too far.”
Shuck frowned, looking at Mira. “What? Why? I’m still confused.”
Mira answered. “It’s obvious, Shuck! You don’t have a perfect memory. Far from it; that’s one of the reasons you take so frequent snapshots of your mind, keeping your mental backups updated. You told me this before.”
Shuck thought for a moment, puzzled. “Is… that true? Let me… think…”
Shuck snapped his fingers, trying to jog his memory. “I genuinely don’t remember mentioning it to you… I thought you didn’t know. It’s not something I share around, since I’m only vaguely aware of it myself… but is it really that bad?”
Mira ran up and hugged Shuck closely. “Oh, you look so cute when you get confused… but do you not remember forgetting our first anniversary?”
Shuck cringed. “Ah. Yes. I guess that confirms it beyond a doubt, huh?”
Mira giggled. “Indeed it does.”
Victor coughed, uncomfortably trying to remind the two he was standing right there. “Very interesting, but that begs the question. If he is not actually Shuck, how does he know everything Shuck knows?”
Mira gasped. “Oh, my. I didn’t finish explaining! Shuck records his own mind frequently, but he edits out his own knowledge of his imperfect memory. He doesn’t quite replace this with a definite belief in his perfect memory, as even a day after restoring his memories from a snapshot would show that he doesn’t actually have perfect memory. He leaves it ambiguous, to the point where he almost never thinks about it. The Legion probably got one of his memory backups later in history, and used it to manufacture this whole scenario. They are trying to play us by making us think that Shuck founded the Legion.”
Victor shrugged. “Okay… but what now? I imagine that the king, whether he is actually Shuck or not...”
“He’s not Shuck.”
“As I said, either way, he’s very likely a perfect copy either way. They probably used a class seven electro caster to impersonate him, and we got a whole bunch of elite guards to deal with. I can already tell we can’t jump out of here, the one way time jump restrictive cage is very clearly there… I can feel it. Some of us might survive if we go all out in fighting them off, but even that doesn’t have great odds. I didn’t bring much in terms of weapons for direct, non-stealthy combat, as I wouldn’t be able to use it to it’s fullest extent, anyways. What are we going to do about all these combatants? We just… aren’t prepared.”
Mira held up a single summoning card. “This… is all we need.”
Mira dropped the card, and to Victor’s shock, the person who appeared…
Was Mira. Wearing a circlet with a single blinking light on it, but otherwise exactly the same, even to the clothes she was wearing. Victor looked back and forth between both Mira, and finally asked an open question.
“Could someone please actually explain what the rift is going on?”
Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying the story, you might also enjoy some of my other published work on Amazon! It’s set in the same fictional universe, but follows different characters.
Gatekeepers, Book One: Unquestionable Truth
Gatekeepers, Book Two: Order of Gravitas
Same post on Minds