The Time Hopper

Ready The Assault

"Now, eat up and get warm, and then you can tell me about everything that's happened." Dr Omega told me with a fatherly smile. He looked younger than he did in the future, which was actually a bit of a surprise to me. Most mages stopped aging when they reached their peak, and given the power he possessed I always just assumed he had been peaked for at least five hundred years. But no, while his hair was beginning to grey, there were still strands of red showing through. Huh, I never knew that was his natural hair colour. 

"Riley, are you alright there?" He asked kindly, drawing my attention. I had zoned out, looking at his hair and thinking through the simpler problems. 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It's just been a long few days, and I'm really worried about Sadie." I explained with a sigh, though my mood did pick up a bit when the inn keeper's daughter brought us two bowls of stew and a towel that she just kind of draped over my dripping hair. Omega thanked her warmly, stopping our conversation until she was far enough away that he was confident we wouldn't be overheard. 

"Now then, my boy, why don't you tell me everything? Start by how you know me, and Sadie, and how you ended up here and how you think we should get your little friend back." He said, taking a long drink out of a steaming mug of tea that I could have sworn wasn't there a second ago before he added something on. "Oh, but don't tell me about how I came to be under Mr Consequence's employ. Leave some things as a surprise." I nodded solemnly. 

It took a while to tell him everything, but I didn't leave anything pertaining to me and Sadie out. It would only help him understand what was going on, and from the jumbled explanations Sadie had given me and the boring lectures from Mr Consequences, I understood that paradoxes would never form. Because Sadie was the child of time, the timeline always conformed to her perception of it, giving others who had travelled in time dual memories. So by the time Dr Omega reached the time when Sadie found the photo, he would have no memory of any of this. 

When I finished, Omega remained quiet for a moment, staring at the table and thinking it over before he spoke once more. 

"Alright, I think I can understand all that. However, and I don't say this to upset you, but are you certain that she is still with us? From what I know of Obsivian, he tends to kill him enemies rather quickly, and that is exactly what the children of the elements are to him." I clenched my jaw to swallow back the irritation. I hated how everyone wanted me to give up on my best friend so easily. 

"Yes, I'm absolutely certain that she isn't dead. Sadie is the toughest, most tenacious person I've ever met, even Obsivian won't be able to bring her down. Besides, he doesn't kill the children of the elements right away, he tries to win them over first. She's real smart, she'll be playing for time. She knows I'm still here, she knows I won't leave her behind. She'll just be waiting for me to go and get her." I murmured, guilt lacing through me. I had already taken so long. She wasn't one to show fear, but I knew how much Obsivian terrified her. 

"And you don't want to let her down." 

"I won't let her down." I ground out, eyes narrowed. He smiled at me. 

"You have a lot of courage, Riley. If all the children of the elements had friends like you, they'd be better off for it. And if you are so certain that Sadie is alive that you're willing to risk the lives of a lot of people on breaking into the manor to try and find her, then I will believe you. Are you willing to have that on your conscience?" He asked me. I paused, thinking it over. I knew that Omega couldn't die here. He would be there in the future, which meant that my decision was between Sadie and a gaggle of mage's I didn't know and didn't care about. Well, that made me sound callous. I did care about them, as I did the life of everyone I had never known. As a rule, I'd rather that they were all safe and happy and healthy, but they were just faceless, nameless lives.