Chapter 15

I fell out of the gateway landing on my ass. Looking around, it seemed that the gateway had landed me in another super chamber. The other Joshuas and E.V.E. were nowhere to be seen. At one of the computer, two guys in their late 20’s seemed to be working. One of them turned towards me.

“He’s back.” he said.

“Oh good.” The other said.

The second turned and stood up. He looked a little like me with the hair styling, though not the color. His hair was multiple colors, and his eyes were the same. He was muscular like a super hero, which I could see in the tight, spandex-like shirt he wore.

“Welcome back, Joshua.” He said as he walked over to me.

“Who’re you? And what do you mean by ‘welcome back’? Back where?” I asked.

He looked a bit perplexed and looked over to the first guy. The first guy shrugged.

“Give me a min, I’ll do a scan.” The first guy said.

“Thanks, Alex.” The second said before turning back to me.

He crouched down to help me up.

“Yep, something’s awry here. The scan shows his brain’s been tampered with.” Alex said.

“What?” I asked.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” The second guy asked.

“I was just in a battle on a version of earth where aliens invaded.” I said.

“Okay. So whoever was messing in your head erased everything after.” The guy sighed. “My name is Joshua Maximus. I’m what’s called a Force Guardian.” He explained. “One of only four in existence. We take turns over several centuries each keeping a lock on something so terrible that if it were let out, all of existence across space and time would suddenly stop. It exists because if it didn’t, nothing else would.”

“Okay.” I said, elongating the ay sound at the end of the word.

To say the least I was a bit perplexed.

“I’m telling you this, so that you grasp the depth of the abilities at our command.” He said as he took my hand in his.

He raised my arm up, to show me the fully repaired manacle which, as far as I knew was broken moments before. It also showed a counter of worlds that I had been to had significantly increased.

“What the hell?” I asked as he let go of me.

“You were here before. Right after the battle. I sent Elder, E.V.E. and Tellus home. We fixed the manacle for you and sent you on your way. I’d ask if you had any luck regarding your search, but I’m pretty sure you won’t remember.” He sighed. “You’re in Dimension Zero. The dimension where all other dimensions and timelines split from.” He added.

“What about Leiara?” I asked.

“I told you the last time that only a Time Lord, a person who can freely manipulate time, could rescue her. They’re the only one who can go into a collapsed timeline.” he explained. “I had pulled you all out of that time via one of our portals, to save you, because the timeline was collapsing due to what someone did there.”

“I’m guessing we don’t have one of those.” I said.

“No. That guy, with the long black hair, named Jason. He was one. It was Jason who caused the timeline to collapse, though not of his own will, and it killed him in the process.” He explained.

“Well that sucks.” I said.

“You had promised to look for another Time Lord while traveling to various timelines, while not only looking for a Tabitha that you clicked with, but gathering cross dimensional energy from the gateways.” He explained.

“Sorry. I guess I didn’t do those things.” I said.

“Oh you probably did.” He said.

He turned back to Alex.

“Hey what did we find out for him?” He asked.

“Well, those beasts that he saw were definitely due to him being in temporal flux. By adjusting our sensors, we were able to detect some here in the base and track them down. We were able to seal them off from entering this room using some force fields. But they seem to be attracted to you being in flux.” Alex said.

“What do we do about it then?” I asked.

“Nothing we can do, until they either kill you, or until the queen shows up.” Joshua explained.

“Queen?” I asked.

“A being who takes the body of someone who dies within the person’s lifetime that’s in flux. She lives in their body after they die, keeping them alive in another dimension, one parallel to your own. Once she comes to you, she’ll absorb the excess energy off you, and it could bring her host back, but it’s risky, it could kill you in the process.” Alex explained.

“Well, how do we stop that then?” I asked.

“You go home.” Joshua said.

“Wait, what about Leiara?” I asked.

“You get a choice, Joshua.” He said to me. “You can either try and use the temporal flux energy into pulling Leiara, your Leiara, from that collapsed or you can use it to go back and undo Tabitha’s death. The latter is a definite. The former is not.”

I had a choice? What kind of a choice was that? Pick between the friend I had just made or the love of my life, my soulmate?