1:5:1 Quararr (Part 1)

Confusion. Their wrist burnt and they felt as though they had sunk significantly into the ground around them. Dazed, their whole body tingling, they waited in the warmth until their brain stopped screaming and their eye adjusted to the light; it was as though everything that had led them to where they were at that moment was playing back in their mind, times long past and moments no longer present spoke over one another, a jigsaw puzzle that came together to form their life. A figure they recognised parted the pieces and suddenly, everything was clear or, at the very least, quieter. While their uninjured eye was still blinded from whatever had happened, they could see a white outline of a person walking towards them. Outlines of their footprints surrounded them, indecisiveness became them. They jumped to their feet and into one of the pairs before recoiling away from the figure and into a second set. Their ‘good’ eye still not working, they continued back-pedalling as they rubbed it vigorously.
“Erm… What’s the line?” It whispered to itself. It gasped. “Be not afraid.” It spoke with a soft, yet powerful, voice. Lore continued scarpering backwards. “Please stop running away.” Lore paused temporarily. “Look, let’s fix your eye.” It waved its hand over their face, restoring sight to their blinded eye. “Better?”
Lore took a moment for their eye to adjust. They had left a clear indent in the ground which was now about three metres away and between them and it, Time. “Oh, it’s you.” They sounded surprised.
“I could say the same thing. You’re supposed to be on Johned… Oh.” It looked them up and down. “Never mind. You’re actually late.”
“Late? I just got here.” Lore tapped at their Breacher. It fizzled and sparked before displaying an error message followed by the local time and date. “We’re not…” They knelt down and, against their better judgement, plunged their open hand into the sand below. “This isn’t possible.”
“Oh, it is. I just don’t know how you managed to get here late.” Time waved their hand over their Breacher and then Lore. “Ah, you’re not late, you’re early. I’m not sure which is worse…”

Time passed. It passed over and over again as it paced in front of them. It muttered to itself as it did. It wasn’t nervous but there was a degree of concern on its face. Concern became concentration which became even more apparent as Time began to shine; waves of gold pulsed from its head to its toes followed by white then blue before the three of them came together; its whole body became engulfed in the glow, every atom of its being, pure light. It flickered then faded to a single point. Where it had stood, a single, centimetre cubed, sphere hovered.
“Time? Is that you?” Lore approached apprehensively. Time’s orb fluttered and floated towards them before entering through their scarred eye.
“Sorry, had to pop off. Make sure you’re in the right place later on. I’ve left a part of my aspect with you to make things easier; it should protect you from paradoxes too so don’t worry too much about meeting yourself.” It spoke from somewhere within them.
“Now what?” As Lore spoke, a trail of white and blue footprints appeared, leading them further away from the battlefield and into the mountains. As they traversed the path, the white prints vanished and the blue became white. Unlike every other time they had seen them, there was only one set of footprints with only one goal in mind; they had no idea what it was however. Along the way, a faint mumbling, a whisper in the wind tempted them towards their destination. Despite their locale’s inherent chaos and noise, the whisper was all they could hear. They stopped for a moment, they found themselves on a ledge, overlooking the plain upon which The Three Year Month was fought; they looked out on the battlefield and saw the destruction The East and West were raining down on one another. They wondered for a moment about where they were in the fray before turning away and continuing. The trail continued and the whispering grew louder but it was still impossible to decipher. They walked for a few minutes until they eventually came to a clearing in the valley. They waited for a moment, the footprints missing. The reason became clear as a figure approached. It bore a familiar silhouette, setting Lore at ease immediately. The figure slowed their approach and became tentative as they analysed the Lore ahead of them. Lore took a step towards her. She instinctively raised her cannon but it didn’t bother Lore. They stood there, staring at one another; neither moving for the longest time. Char clamped her free hand onto the cannon to stabilise it.
Lore’s eyes glowed white. “Hello… Char…” Their speech was not quite their own. “We… Know each other… Let… Me… Prove it…” They held out their hand.
Char back-pedalled but didn’t drop her weapon. “Who are you?”
“I’m Lore.” They spoke calmly and quietly. Again they raised their hand to her face. The light from their eyes was pouring from their fingertips. “You can trust me.”
For some reason, Char knew that she could. Lowering her cannon, she stepped forward and lowered her head. Contact. The light flowed through her. It felt as though they were travelling through her present before venturing to her future. Lore saw the days they would spend together stream by as she made her way to the point at which they parted. Their entire history laid bare. They watched as Char found them in the Sheffield alley then dragged them to a base half way across the universe. Illia went by in a flash, Rexel followed close behind and then Johned came. They watched as their mission played out and then diverged. From Char’s point of view, Lore’s disappearance happened in a blink; they felt her loneliness, they felt her confusion, they felt her determination. Lore continued, walking the memories of their partner like roads in a town. Eventually, they reached her present. She was lying in bed aboard The Razor. Lore, instinctively, held out their hand to her head again and grabbed at it. They pulled, removing Char’s memories and mind from her present. They felt a tugging feeling, pulling them back to their entry point. As if attached to a bungee cord, they fired back to the beginning of their adventure before depositing the memories in their present Char’s head.
Subconscious and conscious mind flipped as Char’s waking mind was dragged into her dream world.
“Lore!” She jumped at them. “Is it really you?”
They nodded. “I don’t quite know how, I heard this whispering and then, it sort of just sorted itself out.”
“What’s sorted itself out?” Char looked around, confused at the detail of both her dream and the simulation within it.
“After Johned, I woke up here. It’s almost over but, it’s lasting longer than I remember.” Lore started. “Time just started rambling at me then it vanished into a ping pong ball. I followed this trail which led me to you. All I needed to do was find you and touch you.”
“What have you done?” Char looked at her wrist. The display made sense. “Am I actually here?”
“I don’t think so. I think I’ve temporarily brought your consciousness back to this version of you to teach the present version of you about your power but I’m not sure.” There was a flicker of blue across their iris. “You’ll be going back to wherever you came from in a moment.”
“Where and when are you, so we can come and get you?” Char looked around. “Oh… Okay, when are you?”
“The last day. I’ll stick around after the timeloop ends. You’ll know where I am.” Lore nodded. “I love you.” They leant in for a kiss. Char reciprocated. As she did, the white light left her body and so did she.
“What just happened?” She paused. “Lore?” Char stepped towards them before wrapping them in her embrace. “Why are you here? You’re supposed to be helping the westerners.”
“I still am but I’m also here too?” Lore thought about it. The blue flicker returned to their eye. “I suppose you’ll forget all about this once we’re done so I might as well tell you. I’m from your future.”
“Is that how I remember you?” Char asked.
Lore nodded. “The memories I’ve given you are from my Char. She’ll be getting those memories and the memories we make today once we’re done.”
Char looked back at the path she’d walked. “Why are you here?”
“I’m here because the war needs to end and to do that, something needs to happen… I wish I knew what that something was but Time was a little stingy with the details, as always.” They shook their head.

Against their better judgement, Lore took a seat on the sandy ground. They crossed their legs and closed their eyes as they tried to remember back to their memories of the war but, given the means of delivery, they were garbled and compressed. They found it difficult to focus on a single day or moment as they all sped by at the speed of sound. A golden glow crossed their eye as they started to concentrate on the last few seconds of the memory scramble. Almost instinctively, Char took their hand and, soon, her eyes too lit up gold. It was as if their mind had become one as Lore’s point of view and hers overlapped one another. The same events from the other person’s perspective. Thirty four days streamed past their left eye as just over three years crossed their right. Only one day was the same for both of them. The last day.