Quantum: The Complete Series

Chapter 18: Tension

Everyone stared at the spot where Tari and Traviere once stood with fear and shock glued to their faces. They had just witnessed Traviere kill Tari right in front of them. It was all unreal to them: Tari was actually dead, and Traviere was the cause of it. Anger couldn't even be felt by anyone, only the guilt could be felt as they didn't move.

SMG4: I can't believe it...we failed our mission...we failed Tari.

SMG4 sat on his knees, weeping at the scene before him. Mario and Axol right behind him, and the others standing without moving, watching him on the ground.

Mario: We tried so hard...just to get this?

SMG4 turned his head slightly so he could see the others out of the corner of his eye and they could see the hope draining from his tearing eyes.

SMG4: If Tari is gone...then that means...

Meggy: (staggering) Glitchy, there was nothing we...we could do. She...sacrificed herself...for us.

SMG4: I don't like that she did such a thing! We could've saved her! She didn't deserve to die like that.

Desti: Glitchy...you know there was nothing-

SMG4: We has everything we could do! And we failed! Tari would've never had to sacrifice herself if Mario never tried to fight Traviere!

Mario: Now I'm the cause of her death!?

SMG4: Hell yeah you are! If you or Meggy never tried to fight him and one of us snuck around to get her, we wouldn't be in this situation!

Meggy: Don't drag me into this! I would've stood no chance if I didn't take a shot at him, and Red would've died if he didn't try to fight back after he caught a freaking bullet! Tari would've sacrificed herself no matter what we did!

SMG4: We could've still saved her! This was pretty much all for nothing if we didn't save her!

Meggy: Don't you say that, Glitchy. We came here to rescue Tari and shut down the Multiverse Project. We can say that Tari did not die in vain if we can at least shut this system down.

Mario: You're right! We still need to shut down that machine!

Axol: (to Luigi) Looks like it's our turn.

Luigi: Lets do this...for Tari.

The two run up to the machine and start their work on it. The technology involved was no where near the technology they were used to working with. It was like working with ancient tech that was actually highly advanced.

Luigi: I have no idea what I'm looking at.

Axol: Me neither. How much time do we have?

Luigi: (checking watch) Ten minutes.

Axol: Great...this'll be a lot of fun.

They start vigorously pulling apart pieces of the system and got the occasional glitch from it, but it reduced the remaining time by thirty seconds in the process.

Luigi: Shit...now there's only one minute left.

Axol: Have we tried pulling the arm out of the system?