Scars (Part II of J.H. White's Puss in Boots)

Chapter Ten: A Chance

Present Day

Scars groaned as he bled out. Puss stared at him with ferocity.

"God has mercy," Puss said. "I don't."

"Wait," Scars rasped. "You can bring her back. There is a machine, a machine that can take you anywhere in time; you can go back and bring her here to this time. From the past."

"Why should I trust you? You were the one who killed her."

"Everything will become clear eventually, Puss. There is more going on than meets the eye," Scars whispered.

"Tell me what," Puss said angrily, leaning in closer. "What's going on?"

"Go to Carnage's old fortress. The machine is there," Scars replied.

As he took his final breaths, he spoke six parting words.

"Lu omni elipsor, de flori skala."

Then, he closed his eyes and let death take him.

Puss didn't trust him. Not one bit. And those words; where had he heard them before?

It didn't matter now. If there was even a chance to bring Kitty back, Puss told himself, he had to take it.

He had to get to Carnage's fortress.

****

Puss had made this journey before, and he hated it. He had been through deserts many times, but this one seemed longer than most. The boring beige stretch of land irritated him. How he wished Babieca was there to accompany him on the trip, but she had died many a moon ago.

Now, he was beginning to doubt Scars again. The bounty hunter had seemed so insistent that Puss should go rescue Kitty, right after Scars had been the one to kill her. Scars was legitimately dead, he was sure of that, but something about this entire situation seemed off. Maybe the whole thing was a trap. A posthumous way to kill him.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sight of what appeared to be a humanoid charging him. He ran as the thing coming towards him rapidly transformed its arms into two machine guns and opened fire. The shots pierced the sand inches from Puss' feet. Then, a bullet got him in the back and he went down like a sack of potatoes.

****

He awoke hours later and saw the humanoid staring down at him. He was being carried. He leapt out of the machine's arms and drew his sword despite the pain circling in his spine.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" he shouted at the robot, clenching his weapon fiercely.

Puss heard machinery turning inside the thing and then it said, "Model O-615. But you can call me O for short, if you like." The robot didn't sound threatening in the slightest.

"Okay....um, O. Why are you here?"

"I was tasked with eliminating you. But now, if you spare my life, according to my hardware I owe you servitude until death."

Puss scoffed. This was probably one of Carnage's former soldiers, repurposed for bounty hunting. "I don't need your help."

"By scanning your thoughts, I can see that you are looking for the remnants of Carnage's time machine." Puss felt exposed, the thing reading his mind.

"Carnage's fortress," O continued, "has been destroyed. But I know where the time machine is. I can take you there."

Puss suddenly got interested and decided that it would be wise to follow O, unless all of this was in fact a trap. Otherwise, he would never have enough information to find the time machine's location.

"Very well, O," Puss said.

"Lead the way."