Chronicle of Burden

Chapter 21

After nearly a day and a half, the Captain made his final preparations and was ready to leave for St. Freya. It was a night with a clear sky, the stars could be seen in a clear sky, and the only thing that could interrupt the quiet of this atmosphere was the buzzing of mosquitos.
The Captain stood outside, leaning back in a chair with his sight aimed at the sky, seemingly lost in thought. He was so close to his goal caused a surge of mixed emotions to flood his mind and body. He was glad and relieved he was so close to his goal, but he was also terrified of the unknown. Even if he could meet his other self in this world, what will happen to him? Will he remain stranded in this world and live out the remaining days of his shortened life?
The Captain looked away from the sky and redirected his attention at the serum dose in his hand. He studied the delicate bottle of glass for a few moments. Tesla was unwilling to produce any more serum doses and didn't want to risk surgery to give the Captain a new arm. His health was in shambles and didn't want to risk seeing him die in the middle of the surgery.
As the Captain placed the self-injection device against the side of his neck and pressed the button, he heard the door swing open. Tesla entered the backyard and saw the Captain inject himself with the "poison" as she called it. She says nothing and simply deeply frowns in disapproval at the sight, after a moment of silent glaring she motions for the Captain to follow her inside. Preparations have been completed and the time to leave was drawing close.
Einstein worked to prepare a safe transport for the Captain. Anti-Entropy had a safe house in the city where St. Freya was and the Captain could make his way toward his destination from there on.
The Captain was to meet with an acquaintance of Anti-Entropy that used to deliver supplies to some of their safe houses. This person wasn't employed by Anti-Entropy but was trustworthy and careful when it came to professionalism.
The Captain's gear had to go through some extensive sessions of maintenance. He refused to tell Tesla, who did all the repairs, what exactly caused that amount of damage, and that he's lucky he's still alive. Since the Captain's now missing his left arm, his armor had to be modified and a special protective cap had to be placed over his exposed shoulder. To Tesla's annoyance, she had to help the Captain put some of his armor on since he couldn't perform this task now that he was missing an arm.
Tesla was especially reluctant to let the Captain leave with Shamash's Blade in his possession, insisting that the weapon was too dangerous to leave in his hands. Einstein reasoned that the Captain seemed to be capable of handling the weapon, if he wasn't then he wouldn't be standing there and there was no telling what would happen if someone that was "blacklisted" would try to use the sword in his stead. Even though Tesla knew how the program worked and the weapon would simply disassemble itself, she was still convinced that the weapon would explode during this process and rethought about keeping the weapon so close to her or Einstein.
When he was ready to leave, the Captain wrapped the cloak the mysterious man gave him around himself, hiding Shamash's Blade and most of his recognizable features underneath it, then prepared to set out.
Tesla had her hands placed on the side of her hips as she looked at the Captain preparing to leave. She maintained a stoic facial expression and didn't plan on saying goodbye. Before turning around and leaving, Tesla exclaimed:

Nikola Tesla: You better not tell anyone about Einstein's house! And you better not come back here like before! I don't want that kind of burden on my hands.

The Captain simply smiled and nodded before Tesla turned around and disappeared inside the kitchen. Eins floated by Einstein and stood next to the front door and said:

Eins: Preparations are complete. Please travel safely and stay healthy.

While the Captain gave Eins a gentle pat, Einstein reminds the Captain what he has to do.

Einstein: Remember: you have to head east when you exit the forest, and when you reach the road you have to travel toward Dublin. You'll meet your guide on the road, he'll recognize you from your cloak. Everything depends on you from there on out.