Time Maze

Are we There Yet?

Having in mind their previous experience with the irrational Mazers, they didn't make any noise, knowing that the Minotaur was bound to find them either way. The last thing they needed was humans shooting at them when they had far more important things to worry about. One of them was debating with the machine far more intelligent than themselves.

It was a quest that though impossible, seemed to be their only way out of the confusing Maze. Their only way to freedom.

They all needed that to a different degree. However, Tyson felt it was crucial to remove Marcus from history before he made a mess they couldn't clean up, before he got erased like Sybil's friend.

"Here it comes," Beor said in a whisper when the earth started shaking once again.

Then he proceeded to do the same as before, leading to being guided by the beast again. After all, they didn't know if they could even enter the hub without the Minotaur's eyes being scanned.

"You know, every time I see you do that, you look less cool," Marcus said conversationally as if their life didn't depend on Beor, a guy they barely knew.

"Shh, the Mazers will hear us. Now is most definitely not the time," Tyson whispered firmly.

The truth was that his reasons weren't only those immediate ones but the fact that he didn't want Marcus to get Beor's mind away from what needed to be done. He had the highest chances of convincing the AI of anything, and Tyson wasn't ready to risk that just to please Marcus.

This time around, something did change. The hub was far brighter, more alive than the first time. It felt as if Ariadne was completely awake. Waiting to see their next move.

"You guys stay back. Let me handle this," Beor said, cautiously approaching the center of the hub where they could see a hologram of a beautiful woman forming.

Sybil looked at him suspiciously, but since there were no other options available, she did as she was told. However, Loralei clung to him, ignoring his words. She was far more afraid of what they might do to her without Beor's protection than she was of disobeying him.

However, Marcus wasn't as rational as Sybil, so he stubbornly started following the Founders until Tyson pulled him back with one look that said more than a thousand words. It bore into Marcus's soul, forcing him to stay close to Tyson, knowing it was crucial to obey this one time.

Soon enough, they could hear Beor's low whispers while he was coaxing the AI into seeing things their way. Or at least that's what they hoped he was doing, as even Tyson was anxious that he couldn't really hear the conversation.

What did they know about the guy after all? Except that he was responsible for all the pain they had gone through. Why wouldn't he betray them now that his memories were back? What was to stop him from leaving without them, without the rest of the Mazers?

"How do you know he isn't saying 'save me and kill the others' or something along those lines?" Marcus asked suspiciously.

As his mind was going through similar ideas, Tyson couldn't control the sense of dread that started rising in him. Although Beor seemed like a nice guy and Tyson's instincts were usually right, he couldn't help but wonder if Marcus might for once have a point.

Sybil solved his dilemma before he had a chance to answer. And he was more than grateful to her for that because he was bound to only increase Marcus's fear.

"Loralei, could we ask you a few questions?" Sybil asked, suddenly beckoning the other woman towards them with a friendly smile.

It was a clever tactic. The one that even Loralei apparently couldn't see through as she sauntered towards them cautiously. Tyson was unsure if it was from the shock of them being friendly towards her or mere curiosity. But he was sure that Beor wouldn't be going anywhere without the woman for whom he risked so much.

"Yes," Loralei said with hesitation.

"We were wondering if you could tell us a few things about those Time Eraser things. Why do you have them in the first place? What was their purpose? Did Beor tell you?" Sybil asked, facing Loralei but watching Beor from the corner of her eyes to see if he reacted in any way to Loralei being far from him.

Since she could see no change in his posture, Sybil concluded that he probably wasn't about to trick them but still decided that the best thing would be to keep Loralei close by.

"Oh, yes, he did tell me because I was also curious about it," Loralei said ardently, like a small child discovering something new and beautiful about the world. "Original purpose of Time Eraser was to make historic figures forget about the presence of strange tourists and the potential changes they made."

"Really? That's so cool," Marcus said, thrilled at the movie-like tone the conversation took.

"That also explains why people in the past didn't know about time travel, although we can often see pictures that make it clear that time travel did happen," Tyson said. "People were just made to forget all about it. But apparently, they forgot to remove the photographic evidence."

"Wow, dude! That's so trippy! People from the past probably saw time travelers gazillion times and just forgot all about them," Marcus said with a tone that suggested their inferiority to him.

It was as if, once again, he had forgotten that his own memories had been erased. That he was one of those people that he was mocking.

"It seems so. But the technology has been abused so badly that it makes one wonder why it was created in the first place," Sybil said with contempt.

"I believe I first created it to help people forget about their trauma, their pain," Loralei said defensively, even though she couldn't remember anything.

"You can't just erase a person's pain!" Tyson snapped at Loralei suddenly. "People need to work through their pain, understand it, and accept it as part of who they are, who they will always be. If you remove that, they suffered for nothing, no lesson was learned, nothing was conquered."

Tears gathered in his eyes as he said that. The pain caused by his sister's death was horrible and sometimes unbearable, but at the same time, it made him a better person. It helped him appreciate more what he had, when he had it. He couldn't imagine life without that part of himself. It felt like robbery.

"People of the future would rather get rid of the pain than deal with it. As far as I understand, I was just giving them what they wanted," Loralei said defensively.

"Maybe, but sometimes you have to give people what they need, not what they want," Tyson said knowingly.

Before they could start an argument that would lead nowhere, Beor returned from his tete-a-tete with Ariadne. From his neutral facial expressions, it was difficult to conclude whether the conversation went well.

"So?" Marcus asked impatiently.

"I did manage to convince her to see things our way. She agrees it would be much better if the Mazers were out of the Maze," Beor said, tapping his fingers against his knee.

"But?" Tyson asked, sensing another obstacle was left, a huge one judging from Beor's behavior.

"She can't get us out. When they shut her down, they severed the connection between her and the exit," Beor said, annoyance coloring his voice. "However, they apparently failed to do the same for the entrance."

"What does that mean for us?" Sybil asked, as practical as always.

"It means we'll have to physically re-establish contact before she can show us the door we need to exit," Beor said.

"Fine," Tyson said, sick and tired of all the impossible complications. "What do we have to do?"

"We have to go to Stonehenge," Beor said, more than ready to go back to his own time where he might understand people, like why Tyson seemed so angry with him.

"Is that a yay or a nay?" Marcus asked, confused.

Then a strange white light filled the room. Before their eyes could adjust to it, they found themselves at the center of Stonehenge, gawking at the stone slabs as if they could tell them what they were supposed to do. With all the strange things that kept happening, maybe they could.