Aberrant: No Fate - Chapter 4: Paradox

[Joani]

(OOC: Please do not post before Part 2 is updated. I hope you enjoy this "preview". The Youtube links lead to the songs which are for mood purposes included.)

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=wjBZh-yRmkc

What I've Done (Linkin Park, Minutes to Midnight)

In this farewell

There's no blood

There's no alibi

'Cause I've drawn regret

From the truth

Of a thousand lies

So let mercy come

And wash away...

What I've done

I'll face myself

To cross out what I've become

Erase myself

And let go of what I've done

Put to rest

What you thought of me

While I clean this slate

With the hands

Of uncertainty

So let mercy come

And wash away...

What I've done

I'll face myself

To cross out what I've become

Erase myself

And let go of what I've done

For What I've done

I'll start again

And whatever pain may come

Today this ends

I'm forgiving what I've done

I'll face myself

To cross out what I've become

Erase myself

And let go of what I've done

What I've done

Forgiving what I've done

------------------------

Keiko got hurled through the stream of endless time the moment she closed her eyes and concentrated on the Quantum Authority she possessed. This time she felt a strain exerting her powers and she instinctively knew that there would be no turning back now. She prayed that she would last long enough to make the changes and live through it.

The stream around her screamed violently and she saw a storm brewing far away where the horizon was. Squinting her eyes she made out the light again to which she felt herself strangely drawn. Within a blink of an eye she was in the center of the light which proved to be the eye of the storm. Warmth spread over her body and it made her skin tinkle. Just before she could concentrate again to grasp for the thread of time she wanted to change she heard his voice in her head.

“It is good to see you again my child. I was hoping we would meet again – my brother is in dire need of your help.”

She looked at him, at his beautiful face and smiled fatherly back to her. There was a strange resemblance to someone she had seen before but she couldn’t put a finger on it.

“Unfortunately I cannot tell you which is the right path to choose, as you certainly know by now that Time has its own laws. All I can ask you is to do what you believe to be right. What I can show you is what happens if you don’t act.”

He placed his hands gently on her head and the light spread through his arms directly into her and then she saw.

Pictures of a terrible war flooded her mind – baselines versus novas battling furiously each other leaving a shattered earth behind. Just before the pictures become unbearable to witness he stops the transfer. “I’ve tried to prevent the outcome of the future but it seems as if my fate is closely tied to that part of the future.”, there is a distinct regret in his voice as he confesses his inability.

“You are different, this time is different and with your help the future could be changed. That is all I ask of you my child. And tell my brother that I forgive him.”

Before Keiko could answer the man vanished in a flash of light and with him the storm disappeared. For a short moment Keiko floated in the void with no real sense of direction. A cold feeling clutched her heart and dragged her down as desperation slowly crept up her spine. She almost stopped breathing and panic made her look around frantically to reach out for something where she could hold on to. Just when she was about to pass out she found something in the back of her mind, a tiny voice screaming at her to remember and not forget.

Straining her node she forced her perception of reality onto the void and started to shape time as she saw fit and found the thread to change the past, the present and the future. Upon touching it gravity caught up with her and she landed rather unpleasantly on her behind right in the middle of a desert. The hot sun shone relentlessly and tiny droplets of sweat formed on her forehead. There was an odd flickering distortion a few feet away from her which looked very much like a fata morgana and Keiko moved slowly forward to reach out for it. As she came closer to the distortion she realised that it was some kind of shielding that appeared to break the light in a way that it created the illusion of a vast empty desert.

Preparing for the worst Keiko stepped through the shield and found herself standing in front of a huge warehouse. The building was unlike the hi-tech that protected it obviously build sometime during the 40s or 50s. This can’t be really what I think it is thought Keiko as she approached the door and entered the building.

Inside the building reality seemed to be similarly twisted like the storm of time she just came from. Virtually hundreds of layers filled the room with myriads of possibilities. Again Keiko had to concentrate and focus to find the right thread to manipulate and slowly she felt exhaustion draining her. Time was running out. Shaking her head to clear her mind she proceeded to unfold the thread and like a surgeon made the adjustments she deemed necessary.

-------------------------

Callum Uallas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8wveDOqWaM&feature=related

The Becoming (Nine Inch Nails "The Downward Spiral")

beat my machine it's a part of me it's inside of me

I'm stuck in this dream it's changing me I am becoming

The me that you know had some second thoughts

He's covered with scabs he is broken and sore

The me that you know doesn't come around much

That part of me isn’t here anymore

All pain disappears it's the nature of my circuitry

Drowns out all I hear no escape from this my new consciousness

The me that you know used to have feelings

But the blood has stopped pumping and he's left to decay

The me that you know is now made up of wires

And even when I'm right with you I'm so far away

I can try to get away but I've strapped myself in

I can try to scratch away the sound in my ears

I can see it killing away all my bad parts

I don't want to listen but it's all too clear

Hiding backwards inside of me I feel so unafraid

Ronnie, hold a little tighter I might just slip away

It won't give up it wants me dead

Goddamn this noise inside my head

They were putting the gun against her head. Callum tensed every muscle in his body and stared at the men in his living room. He had counted six of them and they had invaded their home like a hit squad. Something about this was completely wrong. They shouldn’t be here. Ronnie shouldn’t be the one with a gun pointed at her head, this whole set up was plain wrong.

He breathed calmly and counted down the seconds he needed to get to her, snatch the gun and kill the bastards and he knew he wouldn’t make it. He knew his wife was going to die and with her a part of his sanity would pay its tribute to madness. But he couldn’t give in to madness, he had to look after Molly, he had to survive this.

“Take me, leave her out of this. She has nothing to do with it.”, he heard himself say knowing it was futile. Actually he was trying to buy some time, to scan the creeps and make out any details that could help him exact his revenge. The guy with the gun pointed at his wife seemed to be their leader, everyone else blurred into the background. They all looked the same, black ops gear, SMGs with masks – the whole shit. But something about the voice of the man with the gun seemed too familiar to him. But it wouldn’t matter, they would all die once the trigger was pulled.

As surreal the whole situation seemed a certain calmness spread over him. He knew that kind of mental state from his fights. It was the split-second timing his reflexes had which bordered on prediction. In his minds eye he had already disarmed the man and broke the neck of the guy right next to him. Everything was crystal clear. He had done this before, it felt so familiar and then the man answered him and shattered his vision.

“For god’s sake Callum, don’t make this more complicated than it already is. You shouldn’t have tried to go solo, you knew they would find you eventually!”

“Don’t do this Sean. You don’t have to kill her.”, he heard himself say again wondering about the sudden change of the situation. “I know they killed your wife back when we were in Africa, I never bought that shit about an accident, but this is different!”

It was like watching a bad dubbed movie, he knew a second after he spoke what he was actually going to say. “Put the gun down and leave my home, nothing of this is necessary. Zip up two body bags and tell them you killed us.”

“You know I can’t do that, Callum! Please forgive me my friend.”, then the man with the gun pulled the trigger. A soundless scream was pasted on Callum’s face as he watched his beloved wife collapse on the floor spilling red hot blood over the carpet. “Forgive me, Callum – they forced me to do this.”, then the man dropped the gun and simply waited – the room went dark.

---------------------------

Sean McMillan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw8_7apOoyI

And all that could have been (Nine Inch Nails - Still)

Breeze still carries the sound

Maybe I'll disappear

Tracks will fade in the snow

You won't find me here

Ice is starting to form

Ending what had begun

I am locked in my head

With what I've done

I know you tried to rescue me

Didn't let anyone get in

Left with a trace of all that was

And all that could have been

Please

Take this

And run far away

Far away from me

I am

Tainted

The two of us

Were never meant to be

All these

Pieces

And promises and left behinds

If only I could see

In my

Nothing

You meant everything

Everything to me

Gone fading everything

And all that could have been

Please

Take this

And run far away

Far as you can see

I am

Tainted

And happiness and peace of mind

Were never meant for me

All these

Pieces

And promises and left behinds

If only I could see

In my

Nothing

You meant everything

Everything to me

The assignment was like any other. Infiltrate, secure, kill. The targets name was what kept him scrolling through the pda again and again. Ronnie Uallas.

He remembered the day he met her the first time. She was a looker and he knew Callum was hitting on her. Callum fell for her the moment he saw her – things seemed easier back then. Now everything was starting to fall apart. The world stopped making sense to him, not that it ever did. Sometimes he wished they had died or gone MIA in Africa. It would’ve caused less trouble to their loved ones. But the team wasn’t supposed to have much contact with “civvies” anyway. They were a special task force, trained to kill. Do the job, don’t ask questions and turn off your conscience whenever necessary.

No matter how much training and brainwashing you put a human through, he will eventually break. Humans are not machines and being a Nova doesn’t change a thing in that matter. He had to learn that himself when his wife died. He had mentioned something about retiring after the mission – big mistake. They killed her and made sure he would stay with the team. At least he had remained more or less sane unlike Jack.

He took his phone and dialled a number.

“It’s Sean – yeah, I know.”, pause on the other side of the line. “I need you, don’t want more people involved in this, just you and me.”, he nodded as he heard the voice answer.

“Good, ETA in 12 hrs, I fetch you at the coordinates I’ll be sending you after the call.”, then he hung up.

“Forgive me, Callum.”

------------------------

Jacob White

He checked the memory of his phone and replayed the call. Voice analysis revealed that it was actually Sean who called, he was determined but there was something else the machine could not interpret. Only someone who knew him well could tell the signs.

He hated to do this, especially if a friend was involved. On the other hand, there were no real friends in this kind of business. Just people you could trust to a certain degree. Sean, though, he was close to be called a friend. Someone to trust no matter what.

Checking his computer he logged in with HQ and searched for the assignment. Supposedly for 6 agents, Top-Secret, extremely dangerous. Execution-style… interesting Interrogation and brainwashing. Reset.

Sean was up to something, he was trying to help Callum but he couldn’t talk about it. There were more people involved in this mission. Someone was trying to get rid of the team. Preparing for the worst Jacob gathered his stuff and checked back with the timeframe. Maybe he could buy them some more time before someone at HQ noticed what was going on.

As he expected Sean didn’t say much. Get inside, tranquilize the girl, secure the area. Sean would take care of Ronnie and Callum. Piece of cake.

----------------------------------

Slipface

She tasted blood in her mouth. The last punch must’ve broken a bone or two in her face. The large man lorded over her and was about to strike again but was called back by another man in the dark.

“So you still keep refusing? I know for a fact that at least two of you don’t give a shit about that child. You were supposed to get close to him and analyse his personality. Instead you fucked him. You should have stopped right there and quit the mission!”

She closed her eyes and smiled. She knew he wasn’t able to reach her. Their “magic” didn’t affect her but she played along. Expecting the brute to strike her again she kept smiling, she had won.

------------------------------

Simon Severs

The chains were too strong for him to break and he had lost any sense of time. How long have they kept him captured now? A week? A month? Maybe even a year? His powers were depleted and he couldn’t tell when he felt so desperate and weak before. The situation faintly reminded him of the time when he went into his first chrysalis. No one could’ve prepared him for that although he tried to listen to the teachings and words of his mentor.

The mission had gone awfully wrong and he wasn’t even sure if the others had survived the blast. Jack for sure stood right in the center of it. Not a nice way to go, not for him. It was kind of strange for him to admit that he felt something for his team-mates. The Teras-philiosophy didn’t leave much room for private ties. Especially being a monster. Monsters don’t have friends.

He sighed and tried again to focus on his situation. The room was dark, they gave him no food, yet he lived. What was their purpose of keeping him imprisoned if they didn’t try to interrogate him?