Coming Together

Brian began. He waved his hands and a holographic map appeared above the table. He reoriented it to his seating position and took a deep breath. “For whatever reason, Death has decided to leave our four home planets and our species alone. Should we fail, we will be the only sentients in the universe.” He took a sip of his tea. “I have an idea. We’re all protected against paradoxes right?”
“Yeah.” Everyone but Lore and Char were nodding in agreement.
“Why don’t we go back to Death’s naming ceremony and deal with her Paragons there?” Tay gave him a dirty look while Lore twitched.
“Well, we may be safe from paradoxes but something of that size could get dicey.”
“Yeah. Famine’s attack on O’Raes is a fixed point. We stop that from happening and either the universe gets ripped in two or something even worse happens.” Lore spoke on instinct.
“Alright then, what do you think then Sukal?” Brian leant back, defeated.
“If we can’t stop the Paragons from gaining their powers then we stop them from using them.” He began. “Minimise damages where possible.”
“My thoughts exactly. Only issue is, the only Paragon we have a date for is Famine.”
“That’s not quite true.” Alodrass tapped Brian’s shoulder. “Brian was showing me the Rexel medical station files and something interesting caught my eye.” She flicked through the hologram until she found the right picture. “There he is. Pestilence.” Her finger was poking through The Rexian’s stomach.
“The Rexian?” Tay thought it over. “Of course. ‘I may hate what you are but not who’. He knew I was a Paragon of Time.”
“And that meant he couldn’t kill you for fear of what Time would do.” Alodrass opened a checklist. “So we’ve got two out of four.”
“If we knew their names it would be a lot easier.” Lore chimed in.
“Famine and Pestilence are covered, the other two are War and Chaos.” Durien leant forwards. “Saving the worst till last.”
“Well, War is probably somewhere in the Valhelderen Horizon. At least that’s where I’d be if I wanted to start a fight.” Char circled it on the map.
“I’ve just had another idea.” Brian smiled flicking through the holographic files. “How does this sound? The Grand Empire of Saal is currently losing its grandeur.” Everyone looked at Brian through raised eyebrows. “Ok, ok. After hundreds of years of ‘peace’ the people have started revolting. The whole movement started overnight, sounds like chaos to me. If people weren’t dying left right and centre, it would probably be a fairly decent thing to happen.”
“Then the rumours may be true. Chaos, strangely enough could be reasoned with.” Tay muttered.
“I’m sorry, what?” Lore set their drink down.
“Death, like everyone else, chose her Paragons carefully. If that is true then Chaos is only in it for, well chaos. We clue them into our plan, they might just help us.”
“That… actually tracks.” Alodrass looked surprised yet as if she completely expected it.
“So, here’s the plan. We go after Chaos. We tell them our plan and hope they say yes. I mean who could say no to making the mother of all messes with three Paragons.” She took a sip of her drink. “Once we’ve got Chaos on side, we hit O’Raes first. Since we know when the fixed point is, it’ll be easier to get sorted, showing Chaos our loyalty to our cause.”
“What are we going to be doing?”
“Once I let Famine go,” Lore spoke over Tay. “We step in. Alodrass, you and Brian bring life back to the planet while the rest of us work to grab Famine.”
“That. Basically.” Tay smiled through the pain.
“Then what?”
“Well, with Chaos out of the way, that’s two out of four. We go to the next easiest. Pestilence. Lore?” Tay opened up the floor.
“As much as I would like to go back to the first day of the plague, we can’t. Like with Famine, it’s a fixed point but, just after the destruction of the first station, there’s a window. We go in, let The Rexian watch the stations blow up then we divide and conquer.” Lore took a breath. “Space, you two and Chaos are going after him while we.” They gestured between themselves, Tay and Char. “Reverse the stations destruction. After that, life, you two cure the plague victims.” Tay gave the thumbs up.
“And we finish on a weird one.” Tay pointed to Valhelderen on the map. “We don’t have to worry as much about fixed points because they’ve always been at war, it’s just changed a little. This time round, we just have to capture War.”
“Tay…” Brian raised his hand. “What are we going to do with the Paragons once we’ve got them all?”
“Ah.” Her admission silenced the room. “Honestly, and prepare to point out the irony, I hadn’t thought that far ahead.” The room erupted in laughter. “Seriously, I hadn’t thought that far ahead because I’m not going to be there. I have to go home once War’s been found.”
“You’re being serious.” Lore’s tone dropped like a stone.
“I’m sorry, your rules.”
“But without you, they won’t be able to reach their full potential.” Sukal was looking concerned too.
“Full potential?” Char spoke with Lore.
“You called it the Reaper but it was, in actuality, you harnessing the powers of the Paragon. With all three of us together, we become something more powerful. Don’t worry, I think it’s already being taken care of. You won’t even know I was missing, in fact, when you tell the story, it was as if I never left.”
The silence was unbearable. Lore had only had Tay in their life for a short time but they weren’t sure of going back to living without her. “Chaos then.” They broke the silence. Nodding, everyone stood and followed Brian to the hangar. Final Insurrection.