The End’s Beginning

Everyone was there. Varkral, Charrlene and Crait, The Clones. There were more recognisable faces than Lore was expecting but what they couldn’t see were new ones. While their prophecy had been vague, they had hoped it would drum up more support than the allies they already had, however, it was still nice to see fifty two of the two hundred and eight clones had joined them.
“It’s nice to see everybody.” Lore lifted themselves slightly into the air to get a more accurate headcount. “I was hoping we’d have a few new faces but, beggars can’t be choosers and it’s nice to know that we still have friends in the multiverse.” They mumbled to themselves as they slowly lowered themselves to the floor. They once again levitated and attracted the attention of Ace, Charrlene, Crait, and Varkral. Following Time into a side room, Lore looked slightly confused.
“Why is everyone here?” The confusion spread as they all looked to each other then Lore.
“You called us here. Time’s up you said. Shame too because I had a rather fetching lead.” Varkral looked to the others.
“Yeah, we got a message saying the same thing but when we got back, you weren’t here.” Crait looked to Charrlene for confirmation.
Time paced, it slowly built momentum, psyching itself up for whatever it had in store. “It’s time. If you’ll pardon the pun. I’ve just received word from my cousins. The battle will be held in the central universe, neutral ground, and will be a battle to the general’s surrender or the death, whichever comes first.”
“General’s surrender?” Lore wasn’t the only one who looked puzzled by that ruling.
“To make sure as many of you come back as possible, I told my father that I’d be leading your army. The General’s surrender ruling was my idea. My cousins should tell their people to shoot to maim not kill.”
“Maiming. Nice.” Varkral muttered to himself. “Just what would get you to surrender?”
Time paced some more, it had considered this question would come up but hadn’t quite got the wording right. “If I see that our side is lacking its heavy hitters or that we have no chance of winning, and I mean absolutely no chance, then I will surrender.”
“And who are our heavy hitters?” Crait knew the answer but wanted to hear it from its mouth.
“Lore, Char, Piper and the other Cornerstones. They’re our only advantage over the opposition. We have actual Cornerstones on our side, they’ve only got Paragons, and they don’t even have a full set of those anyway. In their reality, Life didn’t fancy sharing their powers.”
“So we have four heavy hitters effectively.” Lore thought for a moment. “Or one very heavy hitter. What do we know about the bulk of their forces?”
Time bit its lip. “Nothing.” It said nothing else, allowing the silence to punctuate its complete lack of knowledge.
“Helps.” Lore looked around. Something told them that they should be scared. Not too scared, but scared. They felt as though they were about to take their pilot’s license test again; the fear was the same. It confused them, given that in the grand scheme of things, they got to retry their license test but death seemed rather permanent. “Everyone ready?” Hesitantly, the room nodded.
“I’ll be on the battlefield with you…” Time paused. “Well not with you but I’ll be there in spirit.” It tapped at its wrist and suddenly they were in the middle of a nondescript grassy field. It looked almost familiar in its genericness. The air was breathable and the gravity slightly lighter than they were used to. Behind them, the troops began appearing. The others who had travelled with Time looked between them but eventually settled on Lore. Lore lifted themselves above their clone army.
“Right then, we are at war.” There was a mumble. “Initially, we scoured the multiverses for you, not to return you to war but to return you to us. As always, we can’t have nice things. War has found us once again.” Lore glared at Time. “We aren’t going to take this lying down. We will fight and we will win.” The mumbles died down. The clones were waiting on baited breath. “I’m sorry we didn’t start sooner but today will show them that we’ve done all the prep work we needed to. We face an unknown enemy but we know one thing, they certainly aren’t beating us.” The crowd let out a slight cheer. “Good enough.” Lore returned to the floor. They watched as the clones collected their ammunition, armour and weaponry. “Where’s Destiny?”
A voice came from the crowd. In her hand, a clone. “Over here. We’re coming.” Dragging her clone behind her, Destiny made her way to Lore. “Yeah?”
“When we first visited Illia, you spent some time with Dr Tolan and their research didn’t you?” Destiny nodded. “Did they ever say for certain who’s DNA was used to make the clones?”
“No. Just a Quatarrian and a Human. I thought it was abundantly clear that it was yours and Chars.”
“It was.” Charrlene interjected. “A unique blend of our DNA. The best of both of us. Why?”
“Before or after The Reaper programme?” Lore watched as Char and Piper caught on.
“After…” She narrowed her eyes. “Yes, definitely after, why?”
“We ended a three year conflict that had been going on for ten years in under ten minutes. We just needed godly powers and look around us. Fifty two Reaper matrixes, four Cornerstones. I reckon that constitutes godly.”
“It’s worth a try.” Crait began tapping at their Breacher. “I’ll go round up the help that didn’t come with us. I’ll be sure to be here before the fighting starts.”
“Be quick.” Lore shouted as Crait faded away. Lore formed a cone with their hands and shouted to their audience. “Change of plans. Everyone gather round in a circle, holding hands.” There was a tense confusion. “Chop chop.” Lore clapped. A circle began to form.
In the end, it was very nearly a circle, in the same sense that a triangle is a circle but it didn’t matter as long as their hands were linked. Lore, Char and Piper broke the shape and entered its ring. Glowing energy flowed from their arms and into their hands. The other Cornerstones realised the plan and followed suit. Very soon, the pure white light had illuminated everyone involved. Lore pulled their arms towards their chest and in doing so, the entire army came toward them. Their energies intermingled like nothing they had ever experienced. Paradoxical Paper Tigers.