1:5:5 Forgotten (Part 1)

Uncertain. The First wobbled back to their feet. Lore and Char ahead of them. “You two… That… That was… Different.” They struggled at first to articulate their thoughts. “I’m sorry you had to learn all of that like that.”

“You weren’t exactly jumping to tell us yourself.” Char crossed her arms.
“Remind me, what was it you were given when you were first sent to meet Lore?” The First’s face hardened.
“Ah.” She shrunk a little. “Suppose it’s for the best I didn’t though.”
They nodded. “You’re probably right there… Definitely right.” They corrected themselves upon seeing Lore’s look of resentment. “And that’s why I’m sure what I’m about to do is the right thing. That and what I’ve just seen.”
“What? Crait’s history lesson specifically designed to make you look bad?” Char sniggered.
The First shook their head. “After that. You two genuinely love one another.”
Lore and Char turned to one another, their look of surprise mirrored on the other’s face. “Sorry, what?”
The First hesitated. “To be honest, I don’t think they showed you the worst of it. Charrlene and I, we… We’re not the same people we were when this whole thing started.” They paused. “Time told me about you. Not in so many words but I think it meant you two.”
Again, as one, their ears pricked up. “Time?”
“You’ve seen Time too?” Lore’s gaze intensified.
The First simply nodded. “It was a long time ago… Life times ago…” They raised their Breacher. “First time was only briefly. I saw it as I started the first cycle; it just stood there and watched. Didn’t get to speak to it until much later on… It was during the tenth cycle. Charrlene and I had discovered an anomaly on an uninhabited planet so, thinking we’d caused it, we made it a priority.” A hologram of the planet appeared between them. It was an unremarkable body, barely deserving of the title, earning it merely through technicality, but still it held significance.
“Look at that Temporal Potential Energy!” Lore pointed to the statistics that had appeared along-side the image. “Sorry, continue.”
“When we arrived, so did it. Charrlene maintains there wasn’t anything there, but I know what I saw, even if my Breacher didn’t see it either.” The hologram flickered, replaced with an image of The First sat, alone on the planet’s surface. They were speaking but there was no volume. “That’s the only footage of our encounter, and it didn’t even record properly.”
“That’s because Time tends to talk in a timeless zone.” Lore started. “It mentioned watching you though. Said it wanted to make sure you were not going to ruin time too much. Never said anything about another meeting though.”
The First bobbed their head in agreement. “Fair enough. It probably didn’t mention our other meeting because… Well, because it was about you. It told me that there was an opportunity to end the cycle, to sort everything out, just not for me. It told me to keep doing what I was doing. Looked kind of disappointed, like it knew it wouldn’t matter what I did as long as you came along eventually.” They sighed. “It was never supposed to be me in charge, it was you… I just hadn’t made you yet.” They got up and, without a word, started walking.

They walked together, back through Cyenzeit; the peace of the town gave them time to decompress and properly absorb all they had seen. The First walked ahead while Lore and Char lagged behind, weighted by what lie ahead. A part of them never wanted to reach their destination but they knew that they’d have to get there eventually. The simulated sunlight was fading as they reached the edge of town, the road was running out too. The First stopped by the sign. They leant themselves against it, taking deep and deliberate breaths.
“Are you okay?” Lore approached them, jogging slightly ahead of Char.
The First simply nodded. “I’ll be fine. Just getting old. Suppose that’s something to be said about Crait’s method; they didn’t have to worry about the ageing process.”
“You don’t look too much older than the others.” Char caught up.
“I feel it.” The First coughed mid chuckle. “I was forty-five when we started the cycle. I’ve been relying on Charrlene’s rejuvinative energy and Ant’s cybernetics to keep me going since.” They shook their head. “It might sound bad but I’m glad this cycle’s been so short. I mean we really nailed the prep work this time around… Maybe not as fast as the last two times but still, under a third of the original time so we’ve certainly sped up.” The First looked at their boots then to the sandy dunes ahead then back to their boots. “I don’t think I can be bothered with that.” They slowly raised their Breacher and started scrolling through their past co-ordinates. “Ready?”
Lore and Char gently took hold of The First’s wrist. With a nod and a flash, they were gone.

Time had come. Stood in the centre of the council chamber, Lores and Chars surrounding them, Time stood side by side with Lore, Char and The First. They bowed as soon as they realised their company; only the Chars and Emm joined them. As The First rose, Time faded away. They gave a suppressed chuckle as they realised what it had done.
“Time has come.” The First started. They shook their head, the bad joke failed to land. “The time has come.” They corrected themselves. “For me to do something unexpected.” They vanished and reappeared aside Charrlene in their assigned seats. “Lore, Char… Umm… I guess you don’t have nor need nicknames if everyone else has got one… Anyway, Lore, Char, clones or not, you two are undeniably one of us, undeniably unique and undeniably brilliant. While we may not have seen eye to eye at all times or on all matters, I believe you two to be the best of us; you are everything we should strive to be and everything we should hope to achieve.” They paused. A whisper was brewing around the chamber. “To that end…” They tapped at their Breacher, Charrlene did the same. “I hereby relinquish my rank and privilege to you.” They shot Lore and Char a smile and wink. “Congratulations sir, The Occam’s Razor is yours to command, as am I.”
“As am I.” Charrlene finished typing on her teleporter.
Lore’s Breacher vibrated, a message flashed across its dot matrix; a small hologrammatic image of The Razor floated above Char’s wrist.
Chaos ensued.

The whispers devolved into riotous shouting as each Lore stood and shared their mind. A handful of the Chars joined them while the majority tried to become one with their chairs, melting in their embarrassment. The voices overlapped, mingled, coalesced leading to their origins raising the volume. The First deployed a sounding shield to protect the hearing of Lore and Char as the others became louder and louder. It was just noise. Even still, the odd sentiment managed to break the wall.
“What are you doing?” One shouted.
“Piss off they’re in charge.” Tree’s accent cut through. “I’d sooner take orders from Sam… No offence!”
“None taken!” Sam shouted back before adding their own heckle. “Bloody look at them! They’re still wet from the tanks!”
Eventually, the Chars who had tried so hard to remove themselves, joined in, trying to stop their partners from further embarrassing themselves. The new voices joined the cacophony all the same. The sound shield failed. It would have been more comfortable had someone walked up to them and stabbed a knife in both of their ears; it would have achieved a similar effect. A bead of blood clung to Lore’s nose, trailing its way down to their nostril before running parallel to their philtrum, eventually terminating as it reached their mouth. More followed. The assault was not only on their ears but their vision; every heckle, every shout, lit up their bad eyes senses, painting the room. There was not an atom they couldn’t perceive, not a second of the moment they found themselves tortured by that they weren’t experiencing. Char’s blisteringly golden figure attempted to approach only to be caught in her compassionate act like a fly in amber. Time began to slow, dragging with it the shouting, extending each word to infinity before eventually, silence.