When I Met Myself

The Beginning of All Our Troubles Pt.2

"Antwerpus," I smiled, and embraced him warmly, "It's been too long, my friend."

"Well, from what I hear in the news, you're quite the successful Time Warrior. Your Quad is easily the best assembled since the time of Lord Amadeo Pascal."

"And you, yourself, haven't exactly wasted your time. Making it to the Royal Board of the famously selective Runners Council in 42 years, when most people take at least a 100!"

"I did have the good fortune of having you as my friend, and your mother's recommendations really streamlined the process and helped me get in without any of the many bureaucratic problems most people have to face before entering the Council. So really, I assure you, my position is more due to luck than skill or merit."

We laughed.

"Still as humble as ever, yeah?" I grinned, embracing him once more.

He chuckled, and nodded, embarrassed.

"To get down to serious matters, though. As much fun as it was to share details of what we're doing with our lives, I called you here for a different reason," I said, pulling my blaster out of my holster and began polishing it casually.

"Of course, yeah. What is it you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked warily, eyeing my blaster carefully.

"You run two businesses. One that is in the public eye, the one responsible for boosting your image- you're undertaking the construction of entire civilisations on the Border Planets. The other one is the one I am interested in. You run a detectives-for-hire firm, using mercenaries from all over the Galaxy to trail people the Time Council deems dangerous."

"How do you-"

"Come on, Werpus," I laughed (this used to be the diminutive I had for him) and put the blaster back in its holster "You yourself said that my Quad was the best since my ancestor. Do you really think a firm as successful as that would not have been spotted by me already? Don't worry, though, nobody knows about it except for me.

I have a favour to ask of you. I wish for your very best mercenary to trail the man we know as X-58. Dig into his past, find out his secrets and send me a report on this day, 1 year from now."

"Sure, man. Why d'you want to have your team-mate followed, though?"

I looked gravely at him.

"Something tells me he is more than he seems, and his secrecy puts all of us in danger if he can't work with us properly."

"Why did you pick him for your Quad, then?"

"I don't know, honestly. It just felt like the right decision to make, at the time. I had a feeling about him, and I hope I am not proved wrong. However, I do want to prepare for the eventuality that I could have been wrong, which is why I want you to set Lavenor on him."

"You know Lenor too?!" he asked, then saw the look on my face "Of course you do."

I grinned sheepishly at him. "So, you'll do it?"

"Yeah."

"Thank you, my friend. Now, I should probably get going, or my team-mates will think I have a lover I haven't told them about."

"Do you?"

"No, by the Sun! I have no time for such things!"

"Really? Then why has it come to my notice that the history books have been changed a little, with one of the entries of the Queen Agriosa talking about a handsome warrior, who came from nowhere and vanished into nowhere, causing her to waste the next 5 years looking for him until she came across a Pascal, marrying him and continuing the bloodline?"

"Blast it! So there were repercussions."

"Aha! So you were the man she was talking about!"

I laughed. "Guilty as charged."

I thought for a while, and suddenly a realisation struck me. "Wait, did you just say she married a Pascal?"

"Yes, but don't worry, the product of that marriage became a Time Warrior and was killed by one of our men before his bloodline could destroy this timeline. Of course, this might have meant undoing your work, so before he could die, we extracted his DNA and planted it in the womb of a woman strong enough to bear his child. This child then fulfilled a Bootstrap Paradox, preventing any rips from appearing in the space-time continuum."

"Your men?"

"Of course, we sent one of our mercenaries back in time to deal with it. We knew you Time Warriors were too squeamish to ever be responsible for someone's death."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Not you, Melsur, you've always been forged in another metal. Now, I should go too, or people will start asking questions. Shigran, my friend!"

"Shigran!"

___________________________________________________________

He switched the recorder off momentarily, and for a moment, sat quietly. Taking a deep breath, he started the recorder again

I returned to the quarters, where X-58 tried reading my mind to see where I'd been. I blocked him with ease, and laughed.

"X-58, you should know better than to invade the privacy of someone's mind. Or are you looking to pick a fight?"

He looked at me coldly, and gave a monosyllabic response that I couldn't hear properly, but which sounded like No. I smiled, and sat down next to Blemat and Morfus.

"You guys up for a game of Jasp?"

I'll play, Blemat quietly transmitted.

"Alright, Blemat! Organise your troops, I'll just change out of this suit."

We then sat down, and had a few engaging and interesting matches, all of which Blemat obviously won, until I finally got up, tired of losing, and went to bed. Today had been a good day!

Unbeknownst to us, however, the chain reaction that was going to destroy the life we had, had already been set off...