When All is Null and Void

Chapter Six

His arms ached, and his legs did too, but that wouldn't keep him from at least trying to get to school on time. He'd started to wonder if everything that had happened was a dream, a non-existent drug overdose. But Caleb had never once done drugs, and he never would. Besides, the aching in his bones was far too intense for him to believe it had all been some hallucination.

Saundra wasn't in the office when Caleb flew by, but he threw a kind wave in the general direction before ascending to Historian Elderhart's class. He, possibly for the first times ever, was early. Caleb could see it on his professor's face that he was surprised by this. Caleb just smiled and stretched in his chair.

+++

Titus had just stepped from the air dryer when he heard a knock on his door. Without a towel to cover himself, he barely had time to yank the comforter from his bed before his mm walked in. "Mom!"Titus shouted, heat flooding into his cheeks. "I just showered!"

"I changed your diapers," she said, "I've already seen it all." She sat on the couch near the bedroom door, but angled away from him.

"That's disgusting, and you know it," Titus retorted. He used the semi-privacy of her turned away face to throw on underwear and pants. "Why did you just barge in like that?" You know I like my privacy, he wanted to say, but knew it would make him sound no different from a teenager in one of the Holo shows he watched.

It was then he noticed her grin. "Caleb Carlisle is the one."

"What?" he shouted. He was halfway through donning a sweatshirt and was caught in it. "He's so little!"

Rhea shrugged. "Apparently heroes are found in tiny packages."

Titus fought a smirk as a dirty joked drifted across his mind. "So what does this mean?" Titus asked, sitting next to his mom.

"Alexander will train him, teach him how to be a Timewalker. And then whenever he's ready, we'll have him close the Void." His mother's voice was soft, wistful, and she stared at the far corner of the room with unfocused eyes.

Titus felt the question burbling on his lips, the one she so often refused to answer directly. How did the Void open in the first place?She would answer with vague terms, convoluted jargon involving the rings and the passing between the Void and different points in history. Somehow, through the tampering of time, the Void had been cracked opened. Two Timewalkers had broken his mom's law about not having children together, and Natalee had been born with a piece of the Void leeching into the world. An innocent baby plagued by the darkness. All because time had been tampered with, or something.

"So when does he begin?" he asked instead.

"Next month," she said. When Titus looked up, she shrugged. "I've been this patient. Why make him feel as if he's leaving his entire life behind for some crackpot, ambiguous scheme?"

Titus copied her own shrug. He fiddled absently with the ring on his middle finger. His hair was still wet and hung down into his eyes. They needed to get the air dryer fixed.

His mom tapped on her wrist, and the Holo screen slid open and covered her forearm. "There was another leak in..." she scrolled down a page for a few seconds. "Trier, Germany 340 AD."

"You want me to go deal with it?" Titus asked, still apprehensive at the thought of closing the leaks. Whenever the Void seeped into the world, it left dark entrails behind. While it was only Timewalkers who went insane from the Void sickness, the Void touched anyone nearby. Depression and anxiety were common. Death occurred on rare occasions. Neither Titus or his mom were affected by the sickness that ravaged Timewalkers, however, though Titus wasn't entirely sure of the reasoning. So whenever the Void leaked, it was either he or Rhea who went and closed it up.

"Yes, but the rules are still the same: Don't engage any Void sick. I don't think anyone's been affected, but I haven't heard any reports besides the leak in a few weeks." She stood and started to smooth out Titus' blankets on his bed.

"I can go right now!" Titus said brightly. He hopped off the couch and rubbed his hands together quickly.

Rhea nodded. "I'm serious, though." She rounded to Titus and looked him in the eyes. "I would do it myself, but I trust you."

Titus could tell she still wasn't convinced it was safe for him to deal with Void leaks, and he didn't try to convince her this was precisely what made her a good mom: Trusting her son to do a task for her. "I'll deal with it! Don't worry." He hugged her quickly, before setting off around his room, pulling on a shirt, shoes. The rings would outfit you in whatever was appropriate for the occasion, but the Timewalker had to be wearing clothes in the first place, otherwise, he would Hop and be completely nude. Titus could only think of a handful of situations where that might be a desirable circumstance, but Trier definitely wasn't one of those.

His mom sighed in the corner. "Caleb is researching the Timewalkers," she said, looking at her wrist Holo again.

"Didn't you tell him not to?" Titus asked.

"His experience with the Void was a little rougher than I expected. I forgot to say anything. Be safe." She gave him another hug before letting her own ring whisk her away to wherever Caleb was fruitlessly searching.

Whenever he was ready, Titus Hopped.