Timelines Collide

Chapter 9: Little One

I didn't imagine things would change much since I was mia. The hallways are still crowding themselves with soldiers rushing trying to get around to their destinations. If they weren't tripping over one another then they were either cooped up in their barracks, chumming down in the mess hall, or they were clucking their guns within our personal shooting range. 

It was quite the operation the Founders put together here. All to combat Devastators insists on a robot lead valley. He claims since we failed to protect ourselves during The Great Terror, it should be him and his likeness to lead them forward. Sadly, the public ate it up, and now look where we are. Fighting a doctoral government led by machines and his followers.

Peter and I must practically stick ourselves to the wall while on our way to the hangar. Thankfully, there was always room for small talk.

"You know I could go with you to this reality," Peter mutters.

"Nonsense. Your signet warrior talents are needed here." I pause. "Once word fully gets around that Lincoln has died, I doubt Devastator won't be letting this time go to waste." Peter's eyes knot at the mere mention of his name. 

"That damm Devastator. I can't wait for the day I can put three bolts in between his gears for the valley he created." He grinds that all through his teeth then his body exhales. "Sigh my little Mary," he mutters under his breath with a single teardrop trying to let go from his face, 

Little Mary was the nickname given to his little sister by their mother. He told me once his nickname was Little Peat. From what I heard from him the last time he hugged them was when he became a commander in his shiny blue armor. Then the capital bombings happened. 

A bombing that took down most of Section Two's major capital buildings of the old world, which included what he had reclaimed after The Great Terror, which he said took his father.

Most people fought it was done by a separate party with their own twisted scene of sticking it to the current legislators trying to gather their own sense of government. However, another half-blamed Devastator.

I hope he will not be tempted by a clouded fog of rage, especially with him being a signet warrior of four, the best of us all. I do my best to pat him on the shoulder to try and comfort him while he finishes his passionate ranting. It seems to work as he takes a deep breath, his voice softening to tell me, 

"Very well, though with that being said how will you tell the little one that you're leaving?" Discarding the fact that he says as if he didn't just rant on for a few minutes straight, his words do snap me back to reality.

I knew Lana would be bummed about me leaving. Especially for who knows how long. Peter like spotting an eagle flying through a flock of geese utters

"Well, I guess you can explain it to her now." He's right. 

Lana runs straight for us, yelling out my name repeatedly like a pack of flocking crows rustling in the air. Most of the soldiers turn but don't mind, laughing with their eyes towards us as she dives past them hitting each of their calves in full aggression. They seem to find it adorable how I'm like an older brother to her. Especially since now, that her brother is dead.

 I can't picture handling all of that at seven years old. Though what can I say? The age of seven is the new twenty. Before I could even open my arms for her, Lana starts clutching my waist, tightly.

"Joseph, tell me it's not true...you can't be leaving." She whimpers.

Kneeling to her level I whisper, "Sorry Lana, this is something I got to do."

"Then take me with you." She blurts out. "We will win together or die together...I just...I just."

The tears from a riverbank flow down the emerging pathways on her cheeks. I wish she could start a chain reaction within me. Lana has been by my side for the longest time even through my darker days before I joined The Resistance Fighters. However, who knows what's on the other side of that bloody machine.