Making sense of Bavaros' words felt like swimming in butter. Luckily Falco's grandmother didn't have to hear any of this, safe as she was in a hidden panic-room under the city.
Falco cleared his throat. "When Gabriel dies, the universe ends? Do you mean these things happen at the same time... or?"
Thick wrinkles stood out markedly as Grandpa Bava sifted through whatever memories he'd locked away. "As far as I can tell Gabriel's death triggers the immediate collapse of reality."
The strain was evident on the Telepath's weathered face and Falco wondered how remembering entire lifetimes of events might feel.
Falco could see Lilith tensing like she was stopping herself from charging after Gabriel. Their resident clueless brainiac had really done a number on her.
Through clenched teeth, Lilith asked. "But why Gabriel?"
Bavaros gave a weary sigh. "That, I have been unable to answer. The only reason I know Gabriel to be the catalyst of our destruction is that - in my last life - I managed to read Red Global's thoughts. She recognized what she had done, she knew what would happen to reality after she killed him. Whatever Gabriel is, ending his life breaks something fundamental in the Universe."
Falco was wondering what any of this had to do with them, but Lilith spoke up before he could.
"You mean he can't die?" Lilith asked hopefully.
"He can, but when he does, reality seems to reset itself - en-masse for everyone on Earth. Maybe so he can live again? Have another chance? Gabriel might be the reason the timeline began to change so long ago." He coughed. "I don't want to speculate too much. All I know is that today, we have a real shot at stopping this disaster from repeating itself."
Falco's legs were getting twitchy. He was having a harder time listening to the old Telepath than Lilith was. Only respect held him in the audience. He needed more information. "But why us and why now?"
Bavaros patted Rosenquartz's head, stimulating a chuckle from the crystal Super. "By chance, in my last life, I happened to come accross this fine creature. By my last go around, events transpired almost exactly as they did in this timeline: The news station, your grandmother, Strike Force Gamma, even this exact hideout. You, Falco, found him by the entrance to the park, and when I touched Rozenquartz I sensed him to be a spiritual vessel of untold power.
In that timeline, there was only one thing stopping me from finding more answers."
Watching the old man sip tea slower than a snail made Falco want to rip his hair out. For every second a normal human experienced, speedsters lived ten; like animal years. Damn sensory dilation. No wonder dogs were always sleepy - humans were so damn slow.
"That thing was trust. At the time, Rosenquartz would not trust us. He refused to be a tool for my powers, dashing my hopes. In this timestream, however, you joined the Sentinels, Falco, and - by accident - Rosenquartz's strike force."
"For what though, Bava! Please, out with it." Falco interjected.
The mobster gave him a sideways look but kept his cool. Bavaros remembered what happened last time he tried to mind control Falco into submission. "In the short of it, I want to use Rosenquartz to program your souls to remember this night the next time we all reincarnate."
Blank stares met Bavaros' idea. Falco couldn't blame the rest of the squad, this all sounded ridiculous. Unless, of course, the world was about to end. Falco could have assumed the old Telepath might have finally lost it, but there was something in the air that smelled important.
Bavaros went on. "Think about it! You three are closest to Gabriel. If you could change things around him to avoid this confrontation with Red Global, we could keep the timeline flowing - finish this insanity."
"Aren't there better options to go about this? Couldn't you just send me back?" Falco cut in, impatient. "If I knew all this as a kid I wouldn't go out on a murder/revenge spree the night my parents died."
Grandpa Bava looked taken aback. Was it because he hadn't thought of the idea, or because Falco had never spoken so freely of the events surrounding his parents' deaths?
"If I could get your memories all that way my boy, I would. But I can't send your memories back that far. The most I might manage is a month or two at most."
"So just before the invasion of Neo Paolo?" Lilith asked.
"Precisely. That should give you enough time to see what's changed in the next timeline and take steps to avoid this situation."
Lilith's hands started dripping hex energy when she got lost in thought, so Falco prompted her. "What is it, Lil'?"
"Just planning my moves ahead." She said, her utmost concentration on Bavaros. "I'll start streaming the day I wake up. I'll start making calls about Chancellor Verendia's plans to defame the Sentinels the very next day. You should plan ahead, too, Falco."
Wow, she was really buying into the idea of jumping back in time when the universe ended.
Falco was still having a hard time accepting it. "I can plan on the fly. Besides, I'll have to see this whole end of the world thing before I really believe it. No offense, Bava."
"You won't have to wait much longer for proof." Bavaros whispered as a telltale rumble shook the ground around the tunnel. "The battle has reached city-level. Soon the dead-end wall behind me will be vaporized. I picked this spot for a reason. We should be able to see how it all unfolds from here.
These tunnels ran under the park in the south of the city, which stood higher than the rest of the old-style city. Falco felt skeptical again and finally realized he was just scared. At his speed, not much was out of his control in life. This felt like watching a meteor hit the planet at his default 10x slow motion. He felt a bead of sweat creep down his neck and didn't bother to wipe it away.
Before anyone could say anything else, a massive ray of antimatter sliced through the earth, narrowly missing Falco's head as it disintegrated the tunnel wall - alongside most of the hill it was under. Bavaros was right about the view.
A clear and starry night revealed the devastation outside. "Jesus...." Lilith mumbled.
Swathes of fire pocketed the lightless city, the towers downtown were gone and dark patches that looked like long craters had replaced most of the neighborhoods Falco had grown up running through. In the distance another gigantic beam of antimatter raked throught he sky - and the city.
Squinting, the Speedster could vaguely make out a few glowing figures in the night sky. The dots buzzed across the horizon as several more wild blasts of energy annihilated Munich's eastern districts.
"The battle won't come near us again, but time is short. I feel I owe you a chance to witness this moment for yourselves." Bavaros placed a hand on Rosenquartz's head. "When you feel the time is right, place your hand with mine. I will do the rest, just do it before the Whiteout hits us."
The Whiteout? Unfortunately the old man closed his eyes and began his process before Falco could ask.
Rosenquartz giggled as he began to glow. "That tickles! Oh, look!"
A red ball of light lit the night above downtown Munich like the Sun's angry sibling. The heatwave passed over the Heroes as trees burst into flames in a ring around the city. Gale-force winds picked up as the fireball started spinning and shrinking, compressing smaller and smaller until the star became a blinding speck. All was eerily still in the furnace of a city as the speck rose into the sky before striking down like a bolt of lightning.
They could have called it a nuclear explosion and Falco would've believed it. As the concussive blast rumbled by Falco couldn't shake the instant of destruction from his mind. His senses worked fast enough to see the city disintegrate into a smoking crater - street by street.
Grandma's safe house...
A million tragic deaths flashed before Falco's eyes. He stared into the silent gloom, shaking. He couldn't have done anything. Speedsters don't fly, he told himself. Doubt clouded his mind as it slowly unravelled. Gabriel couldn't have survived that.
"It's done." Said Bavaros.
A pinch in Falco's chest stopped him from asking how Bavaros knew. It was like someone had reached into his chest and plucked an artery from his heart. Something was missing, but there were no words to describe it. When he turned to his friends, Falco saw Lilith clutching her hand to her chest.
"Something's... gone." Her nostalgic eyes caught Falco's before darting past him in horror. "Oh my... oh my God."
Falco could feel it.
Whatever it was, a pressure behind him pulled at everything he was. A weight he couldn't ignore was pulling at parts of him he never knew he had. Piercing brightness awaited as he turned around to see a column of white light expanding from the crater and over the hills. Everything the light touched disintegrated.
The closer he looked, the less it seemed like a light and more like a tear in reality, like the universe had a crack in it.
Lilith had her hand on Rosenquartz by the time Falco looked back. "Need any more proof, Speed Racer?"
Falco shook his head, adding his hand to the pile as the light reached the edge of the park below them. Warmth filled him as a vibration started in his hand and flowed until it covered his body. Just in time for him to feel the dull ache of his atoms pulling apart in the light. So much for a witty comeback. The vibration carried him as the whole world turned to ash.
All sound ceased in empty nothing.