Famine's End

Half done. With their work complete, Alodrass and Brian could only wait for Lore’s team’s return. Unsure of what to do with themselves, they got comfortable in the newly revived park, enjoying their hard work.
Null space glistened as the four of them prepared for combat. Although Famine had a slight head start, Tay and Char were gaining on her. Lore attempted to pause time once more; as they tried, they continued in pursuit but all of their attempts were in vain.
“Lore, you can’t stop what doesn’t exist.” Tay shouted back. Lore rolled their eyes. Famine had almost reached the other side but stopped.
“Did I just hear her right? You tried to pause time in Null Space, time doesn’t exist here.” She had her back to the other portal, sand was beginning to seep into the darkness of the Null Space.
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Lore smiled as they appeared to toss an invisible ball towards Famine. As it travelled towards her though, it gained form. The white light from the portals walls coalesced, forming the orb as it struck Famine. Frozen slightly off balance, she began to fall. As her head crossed the threshold, it started to decay. Lore caught up with the others before forcing them through the narrowing gap.
“Okay… What the hell was that? How did you even do that?” Char was so focussed on what had happened that she had barely realised the desert she now found herself in.
“It just felt right?” Lore shrugged as they approached the immobile Paragon. “Do I dare say it?” They whispered under their breath. “But that was easy.” They grabbed Famine’s wrists and hauled her to her feet. Finding that she still wouldn’t balance in her frozen state, they dug down into the sand, burying her feet enough to stop her falling again.
“Where are we?” Tay was slowly spinning on the spot, observing their situation. There was almost nothing but sand for as far as their eyes could see. Almost. Not a kilometre away, a small ramshackle city swayed in the breeze. “Any takers on where we are?”
“Haven’t a clue.” They tapped at their Breacher. “I really hate the sand.” The interface fizzled before displaying an error message. For now, the city was their only hope.
The walk would have been much shorter if they didn’t have to drag Famine but while Lore had been able to intuitively freeze her, unfreezing her was another issue. As they walked they ploughed the sand, tilling up the top layers and creating two near perfect, parallel channels. Another disadvantage of dragging her was the physical toll on their bodies. To prevent themselves from completely melting in the deserts glaring heat, they took it in turns to drag her, waiting until the dragger had worked up a noticeable sweat before swapping. In the dry heat, their clothing dried quickly allowing themselves to get soaked once again. As they neared the tents, it became obvious that what they had thought was a city was in fact only one large tent but also that large was a relative term. The tent shared the footprint of a small bungalow but stood much shorter. Char ducked through the makeshift doorway as she finished her shift.
“Now what?” Char burrowed Famine’s feet into the shelter’s sandy floor before perching herself on the table nearby.
“Thanks for getting me home.” She looked down at where she expected her feet to be. “Seriously? Do any of you know how hard it is to make sand level?” Famine continued to mumble about her floor under her breath as the rest of her guests stood in silent shock. “Drink anyone?”
“So you’re cool with us just kidnapping you?” Tay frowned.
“Technically you brought me home so… bit sketchy but yeah. Death was pretty adamant about not doing anything bad to you guys.”
“She said what?” Time’s Paragons let out their confusion at once.
“Here. Get a look at that.” Famine produced a sheet of yellowed parchment. Written on it was a short list in black ink.
“So, were you all given one of these?” Lore waggled the paper.
“Yeah, I think so. I’ve only really met Chaos though. Good lass. Best of us.”
“What about you? If Chaos is the best, where do you put yourself?”
Famine smirked. “Somewhere in the middle I suppose. That’s something you other Paragon’s don’t get; even though we serve Death, we aren’t the bad guys. I mean look, if I hadn’t visited the O’Raes, they’d be in the middle of a food shortage anyway.” Famine gazed out at a room of confused looks. “They had a good harvest seven years before my famine. They got cocky and wasteful. Their old habits died hard when the food they grew failed to meet demands. It may seem an extreme way of doing things but it got your attention and now, they’ll not take their food for granted.” It took Char a moment to catch up while Lore and Tay stared blankly.
“After Famine left what did we do? We went back in time and got them to institute rationing. Following the timeline, we know they did, and they even started leaving the planet but in this new timeline, there was no famine so…” Char stopped. “There would probably be more than a few annoyed people.”
“Definitely. Annoyed but alive, more net dead people. That’s all that matters. Sometimes you have to save lives to kill more.”
All eyes were on Tay. “After death, you enter her domain. She feeds off of the souls that enter. More living means more people to die.”
“By that rationale, we can never stop you? Are we going to be doing this until we die?” Lore tapped at their seizing arm.
Famine thought about her response for a moment, caressing the dead half of her face with her living hand. “You know what? No. Death told me when I signed up that I’d be doing this sort of thing all the time. Then Time goes and pulls a planet out of nowhere and she flips the script and starts ordering us to kill everything. Near total extinction. I signed on to collect souls not empty the universe so, until things settle down and we’re not facing an extinction level event any more, I think I’m going to stay here and enjoy my tea.”
“Really?” Lore gave her a wide eyed stare. Famine nodded. “Fair enough. Any advice for dealing with the other two?”
“Don’t. War’s a mess but don’t let them talk and Death’s annoyed with Pestilence so do what you want with him.” Famine extended her left hand. Lore took it and gave it a firm shake. “Thanks for taking my resignation so well, it’s been a pleasure.” Finding Fights.