Angela Davis is walking the halls of Andes Command Base when she feels it. Through three inches of cold, dense steel and unknown miles of hard, unyielding gray rock, it shines out to her like a candle in a dark room. She feels the familiar harmonics of the Pillar of Eternity glistening in the timestream, corrupted and warped by a pulse of something wrong, something yellow and sickly. Tuning her senses to the correct location, she can see the Secondborn, sees him the way he sees himself - as an armored, decorated conqueror, standing on the edge of a mountain, looking down upon the lands below. In his hand he holds an indescribably bright point of light, a knot of caged lightning, the scintillatingly luminous flare of a confined human soul. Streams of power gush out of its ten facets and spiral like water down a drain around the Pillar. She watches as the Secondborn closes his fist, increases the energy swirling around him by an order of magnitude, and fires a wave of scanning hyperlight throughout the entire timestream expanding like a bubble around the past, present, and future. He sweeps over the landscape and focuses in on one particular thing - a malevolent red eye, smoldering with fire, held in the hands of-
Angela snaps back to reality. That may be a bit of an overused term, as Protinam powers do not require a trance state of any sort, but looking one way always means you’ll pay less attention to everything else. She gasps in shock for a fraction of a second, then runs down the hallway to find Merrowitz.
Celling’s just parroting information from beyond the fourth wall at this point. He doesn’t really like this, as he has no idea how accurate everything he says really is. He’s looked up to the world beyond to see what the “Sindari” universe looks like, but he hasn’t fought the Secondborn personally, so he just lets the new voice in his head say what it wants to say.
That sounds really insane now that he thinks about it.
He can see the future. He stole an artifact from the Protinam that allows him to search the future from any point. I don't believe you know how the Protinam's abilities work. They can see branches in the future based on decisions and choices. It's possible the Secondborn has not yet mastered the ability. Perhaps more likely is that he has not yet thought to consider the right choices, that he has not yet seen the futures in which Jacob might confront him with the Key. When he does, he will desire this weapon, or its destruction. It is how his mind works: to strengthen and defend Atlantis is his calling. If he cannot possess it, he will destroy it.
More importantly, I will not allow you to hand a weapon to a child and assume that they will be able to master it fast enough to bring down the Secondborn.
I have an option for you, though. Come with us. We will not remake the Key, not here...but it is possible we will do so later. I believe you know Erin Quill? The Protinam, we learned, cannot search the future around him. There are too many possibilities appearing and dissolving rapidly for them to make any sense of. We will go there...and then we will see what can be done about this. I will commit to nothing now, because the less we decide on the harder it will be for the Secondborn to track us down. I think you can agree that, for now at the least, we need to work together. A living Secondborn is a far worse threat to the entire world than the Republic ever could be.
As he gives information on why they can’t face the Secondborn alone, and proposes an alliance against a greater threat, he sees that the rebels are beginning to agree. Anna begins to relax, lowering the gun. The woman with Boonering’s son looks less tense. Jacob steps back and begins to listen.
For the record, it takes more than two shots in the back to kill General Madeline Merrowitz. She’s confined to a wheelchair, wearing a hospital gown, and dragging an IV tube, but clearly is not down for the count. Currently she’s sitting behind her desk answering papers.
Anglea runs in. “General, I just got a fix on the Pillar of Eternity - the Protinam artifact that the Secondborn stole.”
Merrowitz looks up instantly. “Excellent, Angela. So we know where he is?”
“I’d be more concerned with where he’s going,” Angela replies. “He found something in Montevideo. Something he’s interested in.”
“Montevideo?” Merrowitz asks. “That’s where Celling’s been filing requests to search for the last few weeks.”
“Where is Celling now?” Angela asks.
“Still on the base, I presume,” Merrowitz says. “No wait. He left a note somewhere - here - that he’s going to Montevideo to negotiate with the rebels. He’s taking Corporal Edward Fansworth and the fragments of the Key of Taloc core with him.”
“The Key of Taloc? What’s that?”
“A psychic weapon,” Merrowitz explains. “Looks like a glove with a glowing red gem in the center.”
“That’s what the Secondborn is looking for,” Angela realizes. “Did Celling say what he was doing with the Key?”
“The rebels claimed they had some means of reassembling it,” Merrowitz replies. “When is the Secondborn going to get there?”
“I have no idea. Depends on how long until he sets out and how fast he can move. Merrowitz, we need to get a signal there
right now.”
Merrowitz pulls a telegraph from the side of the table and taps urgently on it.
Celling has just finished his speech when Fansworth’s voice comes from the radio. “
Celling, come in. There’s something I have to tell you.”
Celling, still with his hands above his head, glances at Anna for permission. She nods slightly. Celling grabs the radio from his pocket and clicks it on. “Fansworth?”
“
You’ve got incoming. Andes Command just called and your precognitive friend says the Secondborn knows you’re here. Arrival time unknown.”
The plan?A: “Alright, we need to get out of here now. Everyone, come with me.”
B: “Change of plans. We know where he’s gonna be, we can fight him. Begin attempting to reassemble the Key.”
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Topic: (SG) SPAMOVERLORD: Epilogue: Guest Week (Read 303284 times)