"Hey. Grace."
"Mmmph."
I took a sharp breath as I rolled back onto my stomach, prone. I licked my dry lips. The sun dazzled me for a moment but quickly came back into focus. The smiling face of McManis with his hand at his hip.
"I'm not sure if Marvin ever mentioned this, but you talk in your sleep."
I rubbed the sand and crud out of my eyes. "I do?" I said slowly.
Travers chuckled. "Yeah. Something like: beware dragons. Stalker of dreams. Beware the one who is not what she seems. Really confident stuff."
I frowned, looking down at the sand.
What? What are they talking about? Could I have had a prophecy in my sleep?
"I don't know." McManis stepped up. "Your tone of voice changed. Way deeper, and you sounded like you smoked a pack of cigs. I'm not sure if it was you you."
"McManis. You sound like you smoked a pack of cigarettes!"
He turned to face him. "Of course I do! What do you think we survived off sheer fucking will? Hell no! Caffeine and nicotine is where it's at!"
While McManis and Travers went on, I focused on what I said while I was asleep.
Beware dragons? Stalker of dreams. Well that's definitely Darkstalker. Or maybe people who have those stones that let you communicate to others when they're asleep? What were they called again? I can't remember.
Beware the one who is not what she seems?
A chill went up my spine when I realized who it could possibly refer to.
Could it be referring to me? My powers and influence? But I'm no threat!
However, I quickly reneged on that when I realized what I was doing.
I'm fighting against Goldman and Darkstalker. Even though I haven't killed anyone, I'm sure as hell still an enemy to them. A major threat if I can get Marvin freed, so he can dismantle everything. Or maybe my animus magic? Maybe that possibly?
"Grace."
And that could possibly make Moon-
"Hey! Grace!"
I got splashed by McManis.
Blowing water out of my nose. "What was that for!"
"Sorry. You had Marvin's 'I'm going into a death spiral of self-doubt' and I can't have you doing that."
I took a sharp breath, shaking my mind clear.
"Alright." McManis hooked his thumb behind his rifle sling. "Pack your stuff. We're moving out in five."
I looked up, the sun was still low in the sky.
"Won't we still be fighting heat if we leave now?" I asked.
McManis turned back. "The desert gets cold as hell at night. I'd prefer if we walk still with some warmth and light left. Unless you say otherwise."
I very quickly understood where he was coming from.
I caught a glimpse of his mind. Fighting in the deserts of Tunisia, same as Marvin. Forced to be on firewatch for an outdoor command post in 40-degree weather. There were even bouts of hail rarely. The ice clumps just gathering on the ground.
I shook my head free of his thoughts. McManis frowned at me.
"No. I agree. We'll leave in five minutes."
McManis and Travers looked at each other and nodded.
I went about packing whatever I could into my pouches.
Although I was grounded and my wings still stung, I still could serve as a pack mule. Although, we didn't have nearly enough supplies to weigh me down. I barely felt everything loaded up in the pouches.
McManis opted to forgo his big backpack. Instead, slinging his Bren with four mags total in his new webbing pouches, one mag on the gun. He also had a utility sling with six mags, but he left that with me also. Admittedly, it was an additional 13 pounds. He dropped his grenades, keeping his revolver and two pouches, two moon clips each of three shots. All the rest of his equipment, G41, and the B.A.R. Were stuffed into one of my pouches.
Travers walked for about 100 yards before he also followed suit. Only rocking his scoped M1 at low ready, and only his service belt. The rest of his equipment was stowed safely in another one of my pouches.
They were both ready for contact and stayed five steps behind each-other. Far enough away that a grenade or mortar wouldn't take them both out. (Not that Travers was under any threat to begin with.) I stayed a good ways back, camouflaged as well. Invisible from the sides, and sky. Although my black scales would help me blend in, the tan sand still silhouetted me from the sky. I opted to just remain camouflaged.
Wait a minute. DREAMVISITORS, DAMMIT!
I stomped the sand.
"Woah!"
I saw both McManis and Travers hit the dirt.
"Earthquake!"
"It's me! It was me." I quickly shouted.
I saw both of them turn back to look at me, still prone on the ground with their weapons.
"Everything alright Grace?" McManis called.
"Yeah." I quickly responded. "Just... remembered something stupid. We're fine."
McManis took a heavy sigh. "Any contacts?"
I took a look around. "None that I can see or hear."
And with that, they both got up.
"Alright. Keep your distance. Let's keep moving."
We all fell in behind McManis.
But we didn't get too far before the conversations started back up again.
"You know McManis," Travers began. "With everything that we've been doing. I know we're time travelers and all. I wonder if we've already influenced the future in some way and we don't even know."
McManis looked over his shoulder. "I guess, depending on how the future works. If everything has its own unique timeline. Or if they loop back on each other and be seamless. Because the past has already happened, and if it were to be changed, then there will be consequences for those actions." Then he frowned, trying to wrap his head around this himself. "I guess then it just depends on whether or not you have free will in the past. Because if you can still change things, change your situation, change the future, then you get those branching-out timelines.
"But if you can't, and maybe someone with an outside perspective could see you're making the same decisions, same exact actions over and over again through that little section of time, then you don't have free will, you can't influence the future, and the time progresses linearly, no matter what."
He slowed for a minute, turning around to look back at us. Travers was trying so hard to understand.
Admittedly, he wasn't too far off from describing everything I see in The Either. Just, tons of timelines crisscrossing amongst each other. A humongous web, thankfully all pointing forward somehow.
Wait a minute. If time travel is the way McManis says it is, and what it looks like, could I theoretically look forward and possibly see Marvin's arrival? The plane?
"Wait a minute. Then... by that logic." Travers turned to face me. "If Grace can see the future, and we traveled back in time, could she see our arrival?"
"Possibly." McManis rallied on him. "Although it'd be at least a year away. Even if time progressed linearly, that's still a helluva lot of time to see forward." Then McManus looked over his shoulder at me. "But I'm not a seer. I can't say for sure." But someone here sure can.
I took the hint.
"It's very difficult, but there are two ways I can see into the future. Technically three."
McManus and Travers both turned and walked backward.
"One is a sort of brute force method. You slowly look at every possible timeline, emanating from the present. And you sort of slowly collect information that way for whatever section of time you're looking through."
"But separate timelines?" McManus asked.
"Yeah." I nodded. "It's more obvious in the second method. You go into this... time dimension? I call it The Either."
"Either." Both McManus and Travers mumbled.
"It's almost like floating in space. Or when you're deep underwater. Actually, probably more like underwater, because you can just float, but you can also move? It gets pretty confusing so I'll just say that there are like these strings. Timelines. Twisting between each-other, but also branching off, combining back on themselves."
"Like a giant spider web," McManus said, visualizing something not too far off.
"But like it's all pointing in one direction." I clarified, watching him correct his mental model nearly exactly the way I see it. "If I had to sum it up, I would say using the brute force method needs a lot of focus, and it's liable to make you have a meltdown if you search too many timelines at once and can't remain really focused the entire time. But it's a really good way to find a lot of possibilities over the near future.
"The Either is way more stable and less mentally taxing on me, but I'm limited in the fact I can only look at snapshots of timelines, one at a time. And all the timelines can get confusing real fast, so you can get lost real easy if you don't keep track. But I can still use my mindreading and kind of see where they're at in better detail. Local recon."
"So Brute force is like ASDIC Sonar. Sweeping, but it gets fuzzy the further you get, and as you widen your search, the effort scales exponentially. But your Either is more searching through vines. It's hit or miss along specific vines, but you can sort of navigate?"
"Yeah. You could think of it like that." I nodded. "But there's... there's this one timeline. One string." I took a moment, shivering from talons to tail. "It's impossible to miss. And whenever I look in it, no matter where... there's just..." I trailed off.
McManus and Travers stopped. McManus walked up to me.
"There's what?" He inquired.
I fought back tears, but they still streamed down my face. I looked directly at him.
"There's just emptiness. Just... nothing there. No people, no dragons, no land, nothing." I sniffed. I knew McManus and Travers were listening intently. "And... whenever I'm in there... it feels... it feels like everything's coming down on me. Trying to crush me, snuff me out-I..." I choked. "I.. don't like it. It doesn't... feel right."
I felt a hand on my flank. I didn't notice I sat up, curling my tail around me and pulling my wings in close.
"What does it feel like?" Travers asked.
I closed my eyes. Visualizing the inky blackness, feeling the intense pressure all over, even pushing the air out of my lungs just thinking about it. The intense cold. No stimulation. It felt like I was being slowly absorbed into that realm. That if I stayed there, I would be dissolved and fade into that emptiness. That place of total entropy, of nothingness, of emptiness.
"It feels..." I opened my eyes, feeling the air rush in. Feeling the warm embrace. McManus's hand. Their minds. The crumbling sand under my talons. My physical body. The weight of my lungs. The earth under me. "I can't even describe total nothingness."
McManus nodded slowly. He didn't have to visualize it. He knew enough that he would never know how it feels. As humans, as people defined by their senses; absolute deprivation was impossible. Feeling wise: unavoidable. Even feeling nothing is still feeling something: yourself.
But in The Either, you aren't your physical body. I can't explain it, but you're a ghost? You are still defined, you still have features you can make out, but all your senses are left behind. You can only feel people in the timelines through empathy. The only sounds are your own mind, or minds that you are reading.
I can't. I just can't.
I hung my head, letting a few tears run down my face.
I felt McManus run his hand up my hind leg, up to where he could reach. He avoided my wings, avoiding the cuts. He couldn't comfort me any way better.
"What was the third way?" Travers mumbled.
Before I could answer, McManus put his hand up to quiet me.
"There are two types of people, Travers."
The two met each-other.
"People who can extrapolate from incomplete data..."
A long moment of silence ensued.
Travers looked around.
"And what?" He nodded, brandishing his hand. "What is the second kind?"
McManus sighed, facepalming. Apparently, Travers joins those who can't.
I laughed through the tears. Rubbing them with my hands, getting a little dust in my eyes.
"We aren't going to get very far standing. I want to get to The Scorpion Den by Sunrise tomorrow."
McManus raided his eyebrows. "That's a tall order on foot."
"So let's just keep moving then."
I ended up taking point, even though I shifted back to being camouflaged.
I really do hate walking on sand.
Walking miles in the stuff, in freezing weather, it's just suffering. Massive suffering.
McManus and Travers took point back again. They weren't dressed for the occasion. Both slinging their rifles, putting their hands in their armpits, and pulling up their collars.
I offered to breathe fire to warm them up, but they claimed it might draw too much attention.
I reminded them about Marvin's Jacket, and how I enchanted it to be "effectively" cold no matter what. But when both of them tried it on, they both promptly took it off. Both claimed to the same effect that it wasn't much warmer than what we were walking through. It was better used when the sun was out, and they needed to cool down.
We marched on, with McManus and Travers freezing their asses off through the night.
McManis and Travers talked tactics and whatever. I just entertained myself, watching the stars, scanning the dunes, or just blindly walking forward with my eyes shut. Letting McManis' and Travers' mental positions dictate mine.
We walked until we ran out of night to walk under, and the sun began to rise nearly in front of us. And with the dazzling sun, also the temperature.
At first, it was a welcome relief from the freezing night. But then the sun rose higher, and we began to sweat. The sand warmed, becoming almost like walking on lava, even to those with boots on. Then the swirlies began to rise from the golden ground, and the canteen started to be passed around. What water McManis spilled out onto the ground was gone by the time I reached it.
"Jesus. Fuck. How much longer?" Travers rubbed his forehead.
"God if I know." McManis consulted the compass. "All I know is that we're headed in the right direction of The Scorpian Den."
Travers sighed, holding his rifle in trail carry by its trigger guard. Thankfully still maintaining trigger discipline, even though I knew he knew he had a full clip with the safety on. The M1's safety could be easily flicked off, if accidentally, and be ready to rock and roll.
I myself was also battling heat. I was mostly camouflaged to the sides now. The rest of me, I kept a piercing white. However, I quickly became dusted over, turning me a dull tan and further heating me up. I sighed, I couldn't beat this one.
Eventually, the Scorpian Den walls loomed in front of us, but we were still a good ways away.
We knew the Talons of Power were definitely operating in the area, and now that we knew they were aligned with Goldman, we couldn't take any chances.
However, we had two choices to get to Thorn: either through a series of ruins, or skirt around them and lose a good chunk of time. Skirting would definitely be safer, and I had a bad feeling about these ruins; but if we chartered straight through we might be able to reach The Den before delirium sets in. And since we've already been out in the blazing heat for long enough, still wearing army green uniforms (albeit also dusted yellow), we were all practically dying of exposure.
I provided rear security while McManis and Travers kept scouting out.
"Ruins ahead," McManis commented. "Do you want to push through, or go around? Travers? Grace?" He looked back at us.
"I think we should go through," Travers stated. "I want to get out of this fucking sun."
"I-I think we should go around." I shivered. "I don't like these ruins."
McManis took a sharp breath. "Do you see anything in the future?"
I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate, but the warmth scrambled my mind. I couldn't even get into The Ether, let alone find a timeline. I shook my head, sighing.
"Shit." McManis cursed. "Well... even with plenty of water, we're beginning to undergo hyperthermia we need to find somewhere cool as... as soon as possible." He lost his breath for that instant. But as he tried to recover, he took in a long gulp of dry, desert sand. Coughing it out.
"Yeah." Travers held him up. "We need to get to the Scorpian Den right now."
I frowned. I still had a bad feeling about this. I didn't know why, and I couldn't confirm it. So I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed. I followed my men into the ruins.
At first, it was dry, crumbling masonry. I could barely walk anywhere without crushing the remains of a structure, or cracking a tablet. It was loud, and the stone was rough under my claws. Every time I made a movement, I couldn't avoid making a terrible screeching noise that traveled up my spine, making me convulse. I was too loud, this place was not good for traveling through.
It hurt to keep seeing McManis and Travers look over their shoulders at my blundering. I was trying my best, and they knew that, but I was still being loud, and there was nothing I could do about it.
"Wait." I perked up. "Maybe I can fly, guys?"
If that'll quiet you down, sure. Travers looked over his shoulder.
McManis looked at me, hesitating. What about your wings?
I looked over at them. "They've been healing since we landed. I've been meaning to at least try and see if I healed at all."
He took a deep breath. Okay. Sure. Get some eyes in the sky. But don't be obvious, and don't hurt yourself.
I nodded, carefully extending my wings so as not to hit any of the half-collapsing constructions. I could still feel the dull aching with them extended, but the stinging was gone. At least some progress. With an awkward leap up, I was airborne, with my wings fully outstretched. They still stung, noticeably bad, but manageable.
At least I can fly if I need to.
As quietly as I could, I banked around to glide back over where McManis and Travers were heading. Flying over where they were going. They both looked up to see me pass, they knew where I was at. I wiggled my semi-transparent wings at them.
But when I looked back down, I saw movement that made my spine ice over. I think McManis got the same feeling as I did because he dropped.
"AMBUSH!" I roared.
"FIRE!" McManis ordered, laying down heat on the Japs.
Travers took cover and tried picking them off from a low wall, but then opted for suppressing fire as well.
I was too hot to breathe ice. I was hyperthermic as well. So, I created a wall of fire between McManis and Travers, blocking them partially from view.
Adrenaline fueled, and the concern for exhaustion out the window, I landed behind them.
"Quick! Climb on!" I yelled.
Travers looked over at me. "I thought you said-"
"I KNOW WHAT I SAID! GET ON!"
"GO!" McManis motioned. "COVERING FIRE!"
McManis emptied the rest of his magazine, covering Travers' mad dash for me. He quickly swung onto my back, while I crouched down in as much cover as I could manage.
"COVERING FIRE!"
Travers fired as rapidly as he could, covering McManis's retreat. However, his ammo ran out midway, and the Japs suddenly ran through the fire!
"NO!" Travers yelled, as he tried to meet the charging SMG gunner.
Instead, I opened my maw and spat a long-range stream of venom at him. But the wind aerosolized it, defusing the effect. It went all over him, and not where it would incapacitate him immediately. In retaliation, he held down the trigger, spraying wildly in my direction, screaming madly.
I felt the rounds pling off my hide. Stinging hailstones all along my abdominal area.
"CHRIS!" Suddenly Travers exclaimed.
I looked down, seeing McManis slump against me, his Bren falling taut against its sling.
Oh no.
"Come on!"
Travers reached down, trying to pull him up. I tried to support him with my tail, hoisting him up. But my fire break was extinguishing, so I did my best to rebuild it. It was close range, and concealment was no cover against rifles. They started firing through the fire.
"I GOT HIM! LET'S GO!"
With a sharp breath of the burning, dusty air, I lunged myself into the sky.
The air still crackled and snapped around me as I tried my best to turn back to camouflage. However, I knew I still had orange and white rings still running around me, on top of the silhouetting dust.
With every wingbeat, I felt my energy drain, my breath leave me, my mind growing foggier. But I had to get my friends safe. I couldn't leave them there.
Shit. Suddenly, McManis' mind said. I'm shot.
"Oh fuck." Travers noticed the blood on his hands.
"I need... I need a medic." "He needs a doctor!" Travers yelled.
"I know! I know!"
The only one that could tear him was at Thorn's palace... a ten-minute flight away.
I poured into every wingbeat. Newfound strength sent straight to my wings, beating harder and faster than I thought possible. My lungs burned, worse than before; like with each thrust, I was losing a part of myself.
"He's, He's losing blood!" Travers called.
"Fuck!" McManis cursed, as he turned to retrieve his med kit. "Pack it. Pack it. You need to pack it."
"Fuck-fuck-fuck." Travers cursed.
Then I saw Thorn's stronghold.
"We're there! Right there!"
"HURRY!" Travers screamed.
I dove, making Travers waste the entire packet of hemostatic powder. We slammed down in the middle of the courtyard, unaware of just how many SandWings were following us now.
Immediately, Travers slid McManis off my back. I got out the tent with my teeth, laying it down for him like a tarp.
"Hey-hey-hey." "Where-am-I-hit?" "You're-gonna-be-okay." "Where am I hit!" "You're okay." "Your stomach. Right side." "F-uck."
McManis coughed up blood. "Shit. S-start packing it."
"What?" Travers leaned in.
"Pack it! Pack it. Pack it. Pack it."
"Fuck-shit-fuck-shit." Travers fumbled with the med kit, while I tried to get bandages out.
"S-s-see if it went through."
Travers ran his hands around McManis' back. I started taking apart all the medicinal equipment, letting it drop around him.
"No exits."
"G-g... hemo... STAT!"
Travers ripped open another pouch of powder, pouring it into his wound.
"Water. Water! I can't fucking see!"
I poured the water over his abdomen, washing away the blood. Revealing new oozing red liquid.
"I need... I need morphine."
"No. No-no-no-no-no. Don't give up yet."
McManis's head rested against the ground.
"I feel... dizzy."
"What do I do? WHAT DO I DO? GRACE!"
I shook my head. "J-just keep packing! We have to stop the bleeding!"
Grabbing some bandages, I ran it around behind him. Forming a tight harness that I carefully pulled to try and close the wounds.
"Shit," McManis said softly, before his hand thudded softly on the ground. His head rolled over.
"SHIT! McManis! Stay with me!" Travers was on top of him. "McManis! MCMANIS!"
I shook my head, tears flooding my vision. I couldn't stop crying. "Keep packing!"
Travers got another packet, shoving the powder into his bleeding wound.
"C-c-can we cauterize it? I can't stop the bleeding!"
"With what?" I looked around, spotting a tent stake. "With this!" I picked it up, taking a shaky breath, I breathed out a small flame to begin heating the small stick of metal.
"Come on. Stay with me, McManis. STAY WITH ME MCMANIS!"
The powder was everywhere. Sand found its way into the wound, everywhere was dirty. The tent underneath was pooled with so much blood. McManis was still, his eyes closed, but his lips kept moving. Whispering softly.
"Keep packing. Keep packing. Keep packing."
I handed Travers the glowing red stick.
I felt the sizzle of his hands being fried by the heat, but he still removed the bandages and stuck it into his wound. Wiggling it around to cauterize all the damage.
McManis showed no reaction to the pain.
Once all his wounds were fully cauterized, Travers dropped the iron bar into the sand, making the contacting sand flash to glass.
"Come-on." He growled. Grabbing more hemostatic powder, filling the holes, and washing the rest of his body with water.
We worked and worked and worked to try and save the Lieutenant. But he didn't wake up.
Travers tended to some grazing on his arms and helped patch up some of the medium-sized shrapnel holes in my wings with cloth. But we didn't leave McManis's side until Thorn carted him off to Ankh.
I couldn't fit into the passageways anymore, so Travers went with him.
I used my mental projection ability to transfer all that I knew to Ankh, hoping she'd be able to save him. If anyone had the chance, it was going to be her.
I paced back and forth in front of her fortress tents. Thorn herself tried to comfort me, but I couldn't stay still. I tried to lay down, curl myself up into a little ball, and try and wait. But it was then that the tears came. An intense burst of dread filled me. It was like if I wasn't constantly doing something, anything, even walking, McManis wouldn't make it out. So then I would get back up, kept pacing, walking the perimeter, back and forth.
I got a few snapshots through Travers' mind. Glimpses of his condition, and how his progress was. He had lost a lot of blood, so much blood. Ankh said that a dragonett of comparable size would have bled out in 2-3 minutes with the amount and severity of his wounds. He was still unconscious and would be until his body recovered on its own... in around two months. He was still unconscious and in critical condition.
Ankh started looking around for ways to do blood transfusions, and makeshift IV drips, but with just the equipment available to her, it was more than impossible: it was unthinkable.
I couldn't use my magic. It was a miracle Travers didn't use his. If we did, Goldman and Darkstalker would know exactly where we were, and Thorn couldn't face their combined army alone.
It was hopeless, utterly hopeless.
I swept my wings over my head, shielding myself from the outside world, so that nobody would see me cry. The tears started slowly, but then rapidly pooled into rivers. My vision blurred, a headache pounded, my nose ran, and my throat burned. Crying turned to sobbing, and everything only got worse.
You've been through worse.
I kept saying to myself.
I survived SERE school when I joined as an Airborne. Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape training. I had been through a faithfully simulated German POW interrogation. I memorized all my information I would need, and I am an innately creative person.
But as this soldier smacked me across the face with a club, feeling like he was breaking my jaw, causing me to spit blood, the pain rocketing through my entire being, I realized I might not have prepared as much as I could have.
This might be my worst
Suddenly, I was manhandled by my collar.
"The, beatings will stop, once you tell me where your friends are." He said in crusty Japanese English.
"I told you." I gasped, breathing heavily. "I don't know. The enchantment only took them somewhere safe. I don't know where."
"You are lying!"
The soldier slammed me on the stomach, causing me to spit up more blood, onto his uniform.
He took me by the collar, meeting me face to face.
"Look." I closed my eyes. "You can bring a mind reader to read my mind. They won't find anything. They're too smart to return to any camps I know about."
The soldier thought about it for a second. But then stepped back. He raised his club to strike me again.
I merely closed my eyes, accepting the pain.
Suddenly, there was a loud clang of a door.
When I opened my eyes, I saw the soldier saluting. Then I made out the blurry face of a man wearing a clean M42 uniform.
He angled the light onto me, dazzling me. Then he took hold of my chin. I withered in silent pain as he stared directly into me.
"I know I won't get any more intel out of you Marvin." He let me go. "Seems there's an enchantment someone placed on you that doesn't allow me to read your mind. Pity." He knelt down so we were at the same eye level. "That trick will only work for so long. And in the meantime... I might just have a little fun with you for the hell of it."
My mind was a confusing compounding mess of hope and dread. This was Travers or Grace's doing no doubt.
"I'm going to want you awake for this."
I suddenly felt a needle stab my arm. I watched as the blue liquid was shot in.
"Wh-what?" I mumbled out.
Suddenly, another person decked in white scrubs and a face mask wheeled in a cart.
Goldman donned a mask of his own, picking something from the cart. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this."
I heard a drill spin up.
"No."
I saw him angle the tool down toward me.
"No!"
I shook my bindings, but I was locked in tight.
"NO!"
I felt the diamond drill bite.
And then darkness overcame me.