1:5:5 Forgotten (Part 2)

Lore looked around the stillness, their head pounding. At first, it was as they expected but a second look confused them. The box ahead of them had only contained The First and Charrlene, this remained true for their ‘good’ eye however, their ‘bad’ eye perceived differently; for in the box ahead, it saw six figures: Two outlined in gold, two in white and a two in electric blue. Closing their eye, they compared the two interpretations. The figures in white matched with their ‘good’ eye’s vision which left the other four in contention.
“I honestly thought they’d take it a little better… I suppose I haven’t really gotten to know them all but… you know… I thought it’d be a ‘if you’ve met one, you’ve met them all’ sort of thing…” Time twirled around Char, unfreezing her as it did. “Whoops.” It shrugged. “Can’t be helped… What’s done is done and all that… Anyway, how are you?”
Lore looked around. Even frozen, they swore they could hear the shouting. They swiped away at the trail of blood that had since dried, displacing fragments while still leaving the majority intact. “What’s happening to me? What is all… This?” Lore gestured to the Lores and Chars ahead of them.
Time looked around. “That’s my gift, I thought you liked it… Oh…” The realisation set in. “You will like it.” Lore looked at it expectantly. “There’s an old human saying that once a sense is removed, the others get better to compensate. As my Paragon, I couldn’t allow you to be at a disadvantage, so I made sure that if any of your senses got damaged or removed, my power could replace them and improve them.”
“Okay… So it’s the power of the Paragon but what exactly am I seeing and why is there three of everyone?” Lore looked at it. “Except for you and Char?” They found it taxing to speak, their mind still aflame.
“If you’re only seeing three of everyone, that’s a good sign.” It bobbed its head. “Three shows good restraint and prioritisation.” Time drew in closer. “The auras you see, they’re different colours aren’t they?” Time nodded for them. “One represents what has happened, one represents what may happen and the third, the original, represents what is.” It paused. “At this point, I’d have thought you’d be seeing a lot more than you are so your progress is outstanding.”
The front of their mind burned. “A lot more? Surely that means I’m behind your expectations.” Lore scratched more of the blood from their nose and eye.
Time chuckled. “You’d think so. Time sight has a great many uses, the most useful being the ability to see the future and all of its possibilities. The fact that you’re not swamped by those possibilities shows you have greater control than you give yourself credit for.”
“What can we do about them?” Char spoke up, she handed Lore a square of fabric from her pocket to clean their eye. She turned to face the crowd. “I assume that’s why you’re here.”
“Not my circus, not my monkeys I’m afraid. I’m only here because I thought you called for me… I suppose one of you could have; maybe I just got the wrong Lore.” Time closed its eyes and tried to remember which Lores it had met. “Lets see…” It started levitating. “Nope. Nope. Nope.” It continued. Every time it saw a new Lore they didn’t recognise, they repeated themselves in a strange game of duck, duck, goose that only it was playing. Eventually, it found its goose. “There you are.” It didn’t sound too sure of itself. “Emm.” It smiled as it removed them from their box before bringing them down to Lore and Char. “The Creator.” With the title uttered, Emm sprung to life.
“Give them a chance! They can’t do much worse…” Emm shouted, stopping once they realised the target of their chant was right in front of them. “What’s going on here?” They looked at the people in front of them, confused.
“About that…” Char nodded to Time. “I think it might be the best person to answer that.”
“Time!” Emm knelt at its feet. “It’s been a while.”
“Has it?” Time chuckled. “In all seriousness, I’m glad you chose well.”
“Sorry?” Emm stood.
“When last we met, you were on a crossroads. I’m glad you made the right choice… I didn’t fancy having to vaguely inspire another one of you.” Time smiled.
“How many of us have you spoken to exactly?” Char put her arm around Lore to reassure them.
“Just the three of you.” Time paused. “Yes. Just the three of you. All I’ll ever need to talk to. Either you succeed or you fail now. That is, again, up to you.”
Lore gave Char a nod and a pat to reassure her that they were okay. She pressed on. “If you know the outcome and you can only intervene with vague notions, why are you here then?”
“To make sure you two are as ready as you can be.” Time shrugged. “I know you’ve learnt about the existence of Reapers and all that but I wanted to make sure you were at least aware of some of your other abilities.”
Lore’s senses had finally returned to something they could consider normal. “What abilities?”
“As we have already established, Lore has been granted Time Sight but that isn’t the limit.” The walls of the council chamber fell away. The great valley on Illia replaced them. A familiar vignette was brought before them; Undulia’s tank stood in ruin, its panels and superstructure molten; liquid carbon and raw ore lay scattered about. “I believe it was here where you discovered your ability to come together and act as one. And another ability, one I wasn’t expecting you to grasp so easily.” It pointed at what remained of the tank. “Apart, something only Char can do but together.” Time clicked. The elements came together and reformed, forging themselves back into the hull and plating they had once been. It held up its hand at the tank. An electric blue light flooded from it. “You can force objects to experience time at a different rate to the rest of reality.” The newly remade tank lit up with the same blue glow. As it did, the walls began to yellow and degrade showing the rusted and rotten superstructure below. It didn’t take long for the tank to completely wither away to rust and dust. Illia melted away, thawing into the council chamber. “Of course, there is a great deal more to your abilities… You’d be useless as a Paragon if all you could do was stop time and fast forward it…” It paused. “But those are for you to discover by yourselves.” Time vanished, the shouting returned.

The First rose from their chair, their hand in the air. The room suddenly fell silent. “Please… Shut the hel up. I’ve made my choice and your reaction cements it… They were created to be the best of us and they live up to that title. I’ve seen them in action, I’ve heard their plan… It’s time we step back and actually make a bloody change.” Grumbling ensued.
“But you’ve been in charge this whole time… Why step down now?” Tree started.
Ant continued. “It just seems a bit redundant, putting them in charge when ninety percent of the work’s already done.”
“I don’t need to explain myself.” The First finished it.
“I do though.” Lore shouted before realising that their voice had been artificially amplified by microphones hidden around the room. “Sorry. I do need to explain myself. The reason I think The First has chosen me and Char to step up and take over is because in all this time, all of these cycles, you’ve never considered the fact that there used to be eight member species in the Quatarrian empire. If you brought back Quatarr tomorrow, there would only be three, and that’s including Quatarr!”
“So?” A chorus of Lores chimed.
“So, if and when you bring them back, what happens when they want to go back to how things were and they find that humanity has suddenly got control over almost all of their member planets?” Char opened the floor. “Any of you got any bright ideas?” The grumbling returned on cue. “Just as I… We thought. Look, we want the same things but we’ve also thought more than one step ahead.”
“Alright, so how are you going to do it?” One of the Lores heckled.
Lore and Char scoffed. “I suppose we could do it ourselves… Soloss and Aetar may be best left till afterwards though.”
“Then that settles it. Our first act as your new leaders…” The words felt weird leaving their mouth. “My Char and I will be sorting things out… Everyone else, continue as usual I guess.” Again, more grumbling.
“At least they’re not shouting any more.” Char whispered.
“Still, hoped for a little more support.” Lore looked around at their duplicated disgruntled face staring back at them. “Should we give them new orders?”
Char shook her head. “For now, business as usual is probably the best way to go. At least we’ll have free reign that way.”
“We had free reign anyway… Hang on, has anything actually changed?” Lore looked at The First.
“Maybe not yet but after this is all over, win or lose, they’re going to need us.” Char patted their shoulder. “Come on then, let’s get going.” She started towards the door.
It was as if a star had been born behind them; a blinding flare of white light erupted behind them.
“Hold on? You’re just leaving?” Even though they hadn’t looked directly into the light, its sudden appearance and intensity had still done a number on their vision, blinding them temporarily. From their wounded eye, Lore saw forty-eight figures. They first turned themselves to face them before re-orienting Char to match. “What should we be doing?”
“We told you: Whatever it is The First told you to do before they stepped down.” Lore looked over to Char for support before realising she couldn’t see them yet.
One by one, the figures before them dropped to their knees. A final pair of figures joined the pack. Slowly, they too knelt before Lore and Char. “Those were my orders…” The First’s voice was one of the only ones Lore could differentiate without their full vision. “What are yours?”
Lore paused, again looking to Char for support. With their eye still blinded, all they could see of her was her etherial, golden aura; they weren’t quite sure what she could see. They paused. All eyes were on them and they had no idea what to do with them.
“We need to prepare for a win.” Char virtually teleported to Lore’s side. She took their hand into hers. “There’s no point trying to save the universe if its going to be half empty. Lore and I may be able to restore one of the planets by ourselves but we’re going to need a hand with some of the others.”
“Anything you need. We’re on it.” A group of Lores said in unison.
“Okay then.” Char nodded. “Give us a moment to talk with The First then we’ll hopefully have a proper game plan for you. Till then, back to whatever you were doing before the meeting… Please.”
“We definitely need to speak to The First.” Lore whispered through gritted teeth.