Chaos Calmed

Just them. The world around them was dead. An ashen wasteland and they were the only two on its surface.
“You’re real.” Sky poked Lore’s limp metal arm. They nodded. “I’m sorry.” Sky bowed their head and extended their wrists.
Lore shook their head. “What happened here? How long has it been since Quatarr?”
Sky took a deep breath. “Quatarr…” They wiped their face on their sleeve. “After Quatarr with Mauve gone, we didn’t know what to do. The tablet’s instructions had finished. Blue stayed behind on Rexel to help them rebuild but I cast my net further afield.” She rolled up her sleeve. Hidden in the wrist of their glove, a small roll of paper. “Everywhere I’ve been in the last eighteen years.”
“But how? Without time travel, it’s extremely unlikely that you’d have aged so much. No offence.” They chuckled together.
“Three weeks after leaving Rexel, I had pretty much exhausted the shuttles rations. I set down on Orailis Minor to restock when this woman approached me. She looked straight out of one of those old zombie movies Blue used to love. Anyway, she offered me a job, said it would allow me to help the little people of the universe.”
“What was the catch?”
“That’s what I asked her. She said the only catch was that it was my path and mine alone. Oh and that I couldn’t visit Earth, Quatarr, Aetar or Solosur.” They pointed to the top of the note.
“There they are again.” Lore mumbled to themselves. “She say why not?”
“I asked. She just said that it was too risky and that the others weren’t allowed either.”
“So you accepted her offer?”
“Obviously. Through this tablet, you’ve moulded my entire family. Without it, what were we expected to do?” They began to tear up again. “We lived our lives being told what to do day in, day out and then suddenly, nothing. You have no idea what that does to a person! This wouldn’t have even been the first time I’ve left a planet destroyed. Whatever she did to me, I can’t go anywhere, touch anything without destroying it.” The tears became a constant water feature on her stony grey face.
“Then I’m the one who should be sorry.” Lore paused. “I wasn’t the one who issued the tablet but I should have taken responsibility for its consequences.” They put their arm around Sky. The ash around them was beginning to settle, slowly revealing Sky’s camp and The Destiny nearby. “It’s probably too late but I would like to make up for this.” They waved the chipped tablet. “I’ve got an offer for you.”
Sky pulled away. “If you’re going to arrest me, do it.”
“No. I’m not. There were three others, like you, given an offer by Death. Between them, they’ll kill everything that isn’t from these four planets.” Lore pointed to the top of the note. “I need your help to stop that.”
“How?” They inhaled sharply, trying to clear their nostrils.
“Well, for starters, we’ll see what we can do about here. Then we need you to help us find the other three Paragons of Death.”
“You… You can stop this?”
Lore felt a jolt. “Not stop, but perhaps improve. This point isn’t fixed but it isn’t fully fluid. I bet between us, we can make it much better.” They smiled. “Come on, we’re parked nearby. Let’s see what we can do.” Sky grabbed their bag before bidding their camp goodbye. They travelled in silence.
“Here they are.” Lore handed Sky off to Alodrass before finding Tay. “You’re the expert, is there any way we can fix this or at the very least, make things slightly better?”
“Depends on why it started. If they started it, then no but if it was a coincidence then we’re in luck.”
“So to fix it we just remove the original Sky from the equation?”
“Exactly.”
“Sky. How would you like to knock yourself out?” Lore smiled.
The Destiny took off and moved out of the system before Lore did anything. From this point, they could see the fighting but none of the ships were interested in them. The space before them quickly emptied out after the two white flashes of Lore’s Breacher.
“How’d we do?” Lore asked breathlessly. “Sorry, just dragged Sky’s unconscious body to their camp from a back alley. Looked a lot closer without all of the buildings.”
“Well, good news bad news. For starters, civilian death toll has gone down by nearly thirty five percent and it’s still going down but that planet we were just on, Jahara, still got gwydrast… There’s no one English word for it… Burnt to the core?” Tay struggled to describe the planets fate. “Either way, they’re not going extinct now or anywhere in the near future so.” She stuck her thumbs up.
“So what’s next?” Sky looked around the cargo bay.
“We split up.” Lore loaded a holographic map. “We know where Famine and Pestilence are so we don’t have to worry about them but War is still missing. Durien and Sukal, you and Sky go back to the surface and grab the shuttle. Go to The Valhelderen Horizon and see if you can bait out War. We should be able to sort Famine out.”
“Sorry what? Are you going to kill them?” Sky looked scared at the prospect.
“We’re going to capture the other Paragons of Death.” Lore stopped themselves short.
“Then what?” Sky asked the question on everybody’s mind.
“Well… We can’t fully undo what they’ve done so capturing them is the next best thing.” Lore seemed to gain confidence after hearing their own rationalisation. “If we capture them at the right times, we can save millions, entire species.”
“Fine, sounds as good as any plan I’ve heard from you.”
The Destiny landed on the ashen sphere once more, allowing Sky and the Paragons of Space to transfer to their own craft before beginning their separate missions. Easier Said.