The Timeservers

Chapter 83

Alberta, Canada

Just Outside the Frozen Coast

Defector Dumping Ground

December 24, 227 P.F.E

1130 hours

The Guardian shuttle lands and Deathstalker and Viper pull Leo up from his chair. They bound his hands again in the magnetic cuffs and each man holds one of his arms, pulling them to either side with each step. Hound leads the way off the shuttle, then Leo and his entourage, and Via and Sophia come last.
Outside of the shuttle is a forest, a vast one not unlike the one he was found in. There's nothing there like the wiping chair at the camp. Leo looks around for it for a moment before he sees Sophia. Her hair is done in what he thinks is her best style; a long messy braid that tumbles down her back and is half falling out. She's holding a canister of some kind with warning symbols announcing gas under pressure. "So, you'll be the one doing it then? How long will I be in there?"
"Shut up," Hound orders. He turns around, holding an injector. Leo struggles against him but the other spectres hold him tight. Hound gets the injector on Leo's neck and presses down on the syringe. Leo winces, whimpering a little. His head starts to get muggy almost immediately.
"Can you at least tell me how many times they've done this? Have you erased my identity before? You know, all of you might have had your memories wiped to. You all might be the Historians here. Or worse, you might be Timeless. Wouldn't that be something?"
"I told you to shut up."
"You'd think that after however many times you've done this to me you'd know that telling me to shut up is pretty useless. Oh, I've been meaning to compliment you about the whole Timeless claim. That was smart. Use a shadowy, potentially fake organization with no clear ideals as a cover for anything. You must be proud of Sophia, huh Hound?"
"She is something."
"So, again, is she the one who's going to do it?"
"Stop here." Hound stops in the middle of the forest and the rest of them stop with him. "Sophia will not be the one doing this. She will." Hound points to Via and her eyes widen.
Sophia presents her with the canister and she shies away from it.
"Evanesce; are you not loyal to New America?" Sophia wonders.
"I am; I am! I just-," Via looks over at Leo with her mouth hanging open, "Me? Should it really be me? I might handle the thing wrong. I could really blow us all up, or wipe all of us, oh, cows, I could wipe all of us."
"Do it," Hound orders.
"O-okay." Via takes the canister, her hands trembling. She looks over at Leo again.
Leo nods subtly. He reaches up the sleeve of his sweatshirt, slipping out a thin plate of steel he'd taken from a socket in his wall that morning. Before Deathstalker or Viper can see it, Leo wedges the plate between the two cuffs, separating them so they fall to the forest floor. With his hands free he elbows both men at his side then bolts for Via. He snatches the canister from her hands and holds it over his head, his hand on the release valve.
"Don't come any closer or I'll wipe all of us!"
"Mythos, this is crazy!" Sophia yells, stepping forward.
"I live in a place where everyone is at least three other things and no one knows anything about anybody. This is the least crazy thing that's happened in the last week! In fact; this is probably the sanest decision I've made in the last year. Now, let me go."
"Leo, you don't know how important this is." Sophia tilts her head and Leo sees something rustle in the woods in that direction. He suddenly becomes aware of several extra eyes, not belonging to New citizens, peering at him from the bushes and trees. There must be five or so of them. Sophia is behind everyone else in the group and all eyes are on Leo. She raises a hand with two fingers up and mouths "always two steps ahead."
Leo can't help but laugh and than get a little mad at himself because he trusts her even though she did all this, and it might be a setup anyway.
"Give me one reason to trust you," he asks.
"Via trusts me."
Leo looks at Via and she nods, pulling her hair so it covers her face. Sophia must have told her something yesterday when her hair had blocked them.
Sophia steps forward, holding her hands out. "Just give me the canister, and everything will be fine. I promise."
Leo looks over at Via again and she nods to him. He lowers the canister and passes it to Sophia who looks a little pained.
Sophia engages it and hands it to Via. She takes another step back, so no one can see her again. She reaches behind her back, producing a shaft of metal as she pulls the hood of her sweater up.
Via breaks the canister's seal, releasing the gas and creating a tear a few feet away from Leo.
"What did you do that for?" Hound demands.
"I didn't want him to be half in and half out. We can just push him." Via hesitates, seeming to see something in the trees. "Is that a person?"
The group of spectres whirl to see who's there as five Historians dressed in military garb from various eras jump from the trees. Chaos breaks loose as each spectre draws their weapon and the Historians draw theirs.
The spectres advance and Sophia extends the shaft into a spear. She tries to run for Leo as the spectres lead the charge toward the Historians. He starts yelling and running for her getting as far as "Soph-" before Deathstalker runs past him, knocking him out of the way and into the waiting tear.
There's a blaze of light and the world outside the tear seems to speed up. He sees Sophia screaming for him and running toward the tear, stopping just short. Her spear slips from her hand and she falls to her knees.
The Historians push the spectres back, forcing them toward the shuttle. Deathstalker tries to grab Sophia but she points the spear at him. She takes one last look at Leo, saying that she loves him then disappears into the forest. After that things move too fast and Leo closes his eyes as it becomes impossible to move.