Protectors- Consequence

Chapter Thirty Three: Project Genesis

The SD facility was run down since Simon had been retired, but the Zavant AI had kept the power running, creating Project Genesis through the leftover resources. Draedon and Simon led the others through the facility, citing its alien alloy walls which had been rebuilt to block Aura signals, preventing the gods from tracking them. As the winding passageways stretched before them, Zachary shook with rage at the idea that Noctum was gone, well and truly dead, and that these gods were going to kill them as well, if they weren't careful,

"Stay back," Draedon stated, gesturing at the abandoned training rooms before them, "This is a very dangerous device, and unless we activate it properly, it could spell great disaster for us all,"

Then he opened the door, revealing a machine that looked similar to the one that Crimson had used to hop between dimensions, except for a modern interface displaying a time and date. Spirit reached out to inspect it, but Damien stopped her, shaking his head, 

"This is seriously interesting," He muttered, "Its like some sort of time machine. But that can't be real."

"It is not a time machine," Draedon responded, "if it was possible to move backwards and forwards along a timeline, we would know about it. This machine creates an alternate reality from a past date and briefly opens a portal to the new branch of the timeline,"

"That sounds fucking crazy!" Wraith spat, turning away, "I'm not willing to do something that risky,"

"Don't you understand?" Simon replied calmly, "If Project Genesis works, we should be able to create another timeline and safely extract Noctum from it. Then we can have him on our side during the battle with the gods,"

"And what happens to the other timeline without Noctum?" Spirit interrupted, "like what are they going to think when he stops existing?"

"The timeline will only begin existing in the moment we create it, and when we close the portal, I assume the dimensional fissure will tear it apart,"

"So you're suggesting mass genocide against an entire timeline?" Damien incredulously demanded, "You would consider that a good price to pay? I want to bring him back, but the cost is too high. Consider me out,"

Before anyone could stop him, Damien gripped Red Riding Hood's hand and the two left the abandoned building. Zachary looked pensive for a moment, before stepping towards the time machine,

"I think we should do it," he whispered, "I think we should take this chance, use this opportunity to save the world and bring him back,"

"I agree wholeheartedly," Draedon consolidated, his eyes glowing green to show that the Lochlan Ai was in control, "I think that building something and destroying it isn't an unethical thing if it's for the fate of the world..."

"It's unethical to kill everyone in an entire dimension," Shaine walked over to the machine, "but can we really afford to go into this without Adam?"

No. They all knew the answer to the question. Noctum had been the most resilient, the toughest bastard of them all. If Shu had been able to beat Adam, then they would need something stronger than him to beat Shu, not to mention the other two, who could even be stronger than the fire god,

"I've practiced my own variation of the soul burner," Zachary said doubtfully, "but I have no idea if that will be enough,"

Calvin turned to leave as well,

"It's not up to me, so do whatever the hell you want," He activated his teleporter, "just try not to get us all killed,"

Then he was gone as well, leaving only the five of them and Project Genesis, its gears whirring as it crackled with Draedon's technology alongside Aura. The concept was so simple, yet the consequences were terrible. Was it really ethically alright to go through with a plan like that? No. It was never ethical to take life, no matter what, but hadn't Adam been a killer before? Didn't that justify it. Simon took a seat on an old bench next to the machine,