Tempest

13 - Reality of the Situation

"Tobias?" KT tentatively called his name. "Tobias, come to me. It's alright, I'm here."

He barely registered anything she was saying at this point; to him, it was all white noise. There wasn't anything he could hear other than static in his mind, a garbled sound that buzzed in his head like an incessant insect.

"Listen to me. You're in danger of being taken for every moment we stay, I need you to come here."

Slowly, he looked at her. She nodded her cylindrical head encouragingly. "That's it, come on."

After a few moments, he took a shaky step towards her. Then another. And another.

"Alright, let's get you ... no-!"

Flash.

KT's cry was cut off as yet another distortion swallowed him up, and spat him back into the past. He looked around, at a loss for what to do. Was this it? For him to constantly switch between times until he died from either one of those things or insanity?

Tobias!

Hearing the familiar voice in his head, he turned to look at the entrance to the spire. Outside on the bridge, the Architect was still standing, though barely. He watched as the white being stumbled for a moment, evidently weakened from the wounds on its chest.

The sight of the vulnerable entity kicked him into gear. Here, it was the closest thing he had to an ally. He ran outside, positioning himself under the weaker side of the Architect, and allowing it to lean on him for support. "You're in worse shape than I thought." Its proportionately thin arms wrapped around him for support, and he adjusted himself to the side for the surprising curvature of its large figure and hips. Was it female? Or, whatever passed for a feminine Architect?

It waved him aside. As I said, there is no time to waste on my health. Time is short, we must-

It seized up violently for a moment, the pain causing it to tense up and grip its chest tightly. That same golden-white liquid gushing from its chest began to fill the cracks between its fingers, dripping through the seams and onto the bridge. Unfortunately, there wasn't much Tobias knew in the manner of alien first aid.

After a moment, it resumed its previous stance. We must activate the spire.

Assisting the Architect the rest of the way, Tobias questioned it as they entered the facility. "What are these things? Are they the Amalgamation?"

The Architect shook his head. No. The Amalgamation is not the creatures, it is an event caused by them; one that is still a potential reality if you do not stop them.

"And what's that?"

The abominations spread by converting others into creatures like them, as you saw with the other human. Inwardly, Tobias winced at being reminded of James' fate. They continue to add mass to their collective until eventually they will have consumed all organic matter in the galaxy, probably farther.

That froze Tobias in place. "What do you mean, 'all organic matter'?"

As they reached the shaft that he'd noticed in the other time, the Architect pressed his hand against the wall next to it. It glowed a warm blue color, obviously sensing the print. We became aware of them millions of years ago as we watched them topple far off civilizations, ones we thought were long out of reach.

Its tone became venomous. But they are nothing if not patient; traveling for millions of years, destroying everything in their path there came a time when we came face to face with it. Now, we are on the verge of extinction as well. It will continue to feed until there is nothing left to feed on; they will become an Amalgamation of every living creature in observable space. But we have a plan.