by The Eurostar and T5
Edulcore Cicciotto:
It's warm outside and very wet. It rained when I met with the Futurists, and now the sun is causing the water to evaporate, forming clouds that slowly rise along the forested slopes of the mountain toward the top of the volcano. Demeter is walking at my side, her eyes wandering over the features of the garden.
"Who are you, Demeter?"
She smiles and stops by the side of a small pool. She takes a long blade of grass and begins to make circles in the water. "I am the host of this gathering."
"You own this place?"
The woman laughs for a moment. "No, this place was abandoned years ago. It has been readied for this purpose alone after you found the sword."
"What? I found Ladnikia two days ago! It's impossible that--" The woman silences me, putting her index finger over my lips. I kiss it. She smiles. Then she points the same finger toward the castle. And I see that it's in ruins. "That's not possible! I was inside it -- it was..."
"An illusion. Like everything else. That's what both parties affirm, giving the responsibility to each other. Open your eyes, Edulcore."
"Who are you?"
She sighs, takes a full breath, and turning away from me whispers, "I am the mate of the Timeless Champion. I am Penelope, Dido, Genevieve, Alda, Deianira, Crimilde, and countless others."
"Wait, wait, wait. What's this crap about the Timeless Champion? That ghost said something about it three days ago... when I found Ladnikia. What do you know?"
"What you call crap is your destiny. You are the hero across time and space. You have been the Champion of humankind at every point of the time stream, and you are in each parallel reality. Just as I am your mate everywhere and everywhere, and the being you call the Dark Dwarf is the companion of the Timeless Champion for each of your incarnations: Virgilio, Enkidu, Rinaldus, Moonglow... I could go on forever."
"I... think I don't really understand. Why should I be this Champion?"
"Oh, that's not for you to decide. Call it fate. Call it doom. You are the point of contact of the two shaping forces of the universe: science and magic. You were predestined."
"And you are predestined to be my girlfriend? You know this makes no sense. This is the twenty-first century."
"As you said, I am predestined. But not now, not tomorrow. One day, when you'll have forgotten about me, that will be the day. Today I am here to host this nexus place. Only I can sustain this neutral ground -- I, that am the counterpart of you, the yang to your yin."
"And Ladnikia? What's her role in this? Why was it on the island?"
"The Champion has his weapon: Durendal, Excalibur, Mjolnir, Stormbringer..."
"Yes, yes, I get it. What I want to know is if I found it because of what I am, or the reverse. If I become this eternal Champion because I found it."
"You are the Champion for right of your birth. Ladnikia is your weapon, but it could have been a different blade. Or any other weapon. In fact, the appearance of Ladnikia here has been a complete surprise. But this is a strange time. The future was erased just a few months ago. All the futures. Now it's slowly rebuilding itself in its many ramifications. But one path, the most disturbing one, seems very strong. It's what the Hoods are trying to secure, and what the Futurists are determined to avoid. I am sorry I can't give anything more away, but it's your freedom to make the choice and make the first step along the path."
"You are trying to say that from my decision depends the destiny of the planet?"
"Maybe not the planet... but surely humankind."
"How can I decide?"
"I can't help you. But before you do, you have to listen to a third party. The old Neanderthal is waiting for you in the Castle."
Eyes of the ages, the everlasting memories of past deeds -- some good, but a lot of them terrible -- all in the name of freedom.
Ha! What is freedom anyway? Freedom to make war on your neighbor? Freedom to kill for love? Freedom to go to work, day after relentless day?
These thoughts weighed heavily on the pale old man. His thick brow was wrinkled in an everlasting frown that seemed to make people -- those he rarely met -- back away, thinking that their mere presence had somehow offended him.
So this was the annual gathering -- the gathering of madmen, the gathering of would-be world dominators. Nothing was outside their grasp. All political events were influenced by these powerful factions, and they wanted still more.
The ultimate goal of the Futurists was obvious, but the Hoods had plans within plans. Even though he had followed their progress through time eternal as long as they had been here, he didn't have an inkling to their ultimate goal. Why had they come here in the first place? And why, with their superior technology, hadn't they taken possession of the world when they arrived those thousands of years ago?
He was determined to at least get some of the truth this time, no matter the cost.
Edulcore Cicciotto:
I am standing in front of the old Neanderthal. He is sitting on a chair in the same room where I met both the Hoods and the Cloaks.
A simple chair, yet it's like a throne under his imposing presence. Like the people I met before, he too dresses in a strange, antique outfit, but I am not able to recognize it. Very ancient, perhaps Sumerian or even older. At his side stands Crasher and Ameristar like guards. They too are not dressed in their traditional outfits, the armor Jackie is known for and the shorts with the red boots for the other girl, Crasher. Instead, they wear complex garb, quite transparent, probably from the same period from which the Neanderthal man's clothing comes.
Only four days have passed since I met him in Paris. Evidently my discovery of Ladnikia has changed things even for him.
"I have no fancy videos to show you, Eurostar. I will be straight. I have told you the truth before. I am here just to beg you not to ally with either of the two parties and to come to my side for the better for humankind."
Truth: a word so abused in this place. "Hoods and Cloaks have told me very different stories, but both a lot more detailed than your own. I would like to understand. Tell me YOUR truth about the beginnings, especially where you fit in the scheme."
The Neanderthal stands up from the chair and goes to the window. His eyes look at the distant horizon. "What they have told you is the truth, from their own point of view. The Hoods are aliens, just like they told you. And the Cloaks -- the Futurists -- are really masters of magic as they said. Each one negates the other and claims there is a matrix or a spell that fogs the mind of humankind. That is not true. They can't accept each other's reality, because that would cancel their idea of knowing absolute truth."
The old man's voice lowers to a whisper. "As for the beginning, the Annunaki landed on Earth at the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic Age, when the ancestors of your species roamed the savannahs of Africa, the last of the Homo Erectus were living in the jungles of Asia, and my species dominated Europe. It was indeed the Age of Gold. No wars, no hate. It was Eden. Men of all species were living in accordance with nature. The Annunaki then arrived and set foot on Earth. But they were few, so they needed slaves -- human slaves. And to make sure they wouldn't rebel, they mutated them, genetically altering the African men, your ancestors, to suit their needs. We Neanderthals were not suitable for the experiment, because our brains were... different. We had something in our physiology that the Annunaki feared, and they slaughtered all of our species. I was the only one to survive. I swore that I would avenge my own kind, and so I battled them throughout time, thanks to my gift: immortality."
"What about the Cloaks?"
"They were my first attempt to fight the Annunaki. I undid their creation. Thanks to my power, I stole knowledge from the 'gods' and began wandering across the world, to give freedom to man. And soon man rebelled against the gods. I brought the way of magic, which was the art of my kind. It took millennia, but in the end, thirteen-thousand years ago, the citadel of the Annuanki was destroyed. There were nuclear explosions, and the Earth was shaken. There were catastrophes -- floods, earthquakes -- and in the end, the Annunaki were nowhere to be found. But their acolytes survived and soon began their struggle to recreate the lost civilization. And the Futurists were there to fight them. And I, hiding in the shadows, held both in check, so that humankind would never be enslaved again."
"Yes, just like you told me the other day in Paris. Why are you here now? I told you then that I have no interest in joining you."
"I know. But when I heard about this meeting, I couldn't risk having you ally with one of the parties. They speak of freedom, but what they really want is to reshape the Earth into their own image."
"While you are so noble to fight just for the freedom of man," I add with skepticism. "Can I ask you just why? You are the first man in this universe that has not his own motivations and agendas. Or at least that's what you want me to think."
The old man smiles. "I lost everything. There is none of my kind left. And I can't die, so I can't reunite with them. What else should I need? Money, jewels, women? I lost interest, if ever I had, in things so many millennia ago."
Mmm... he seems sincere. "What do you know about Ladnikia, the crap about the Timeless Champion, and the Dark Dwarf?"
"About Ladnikia, all I can say is that I don't like the fact that it has appeared now. You see, the future was altered a few months ago, just after you 'died' in Mandelovia. All the predicted paths were wiped out, and since then new ones have been slowly forming. And they all look dire. You are the key to most of these paths, mainly because of your upbringing. Ladnikia is a factor that makes any development of the future less predictable. I know her from many realities, and never has she brought luck to her owner.
"But I can't ask you to destroy her. You are tied to her now. As for the Champion, I knew all along. That's why I asked you to join me, just as I asked the Champion to be my ally in each of his incarnations through time. What surprises me is that Ladnikia, in this reality, is the sword of the Champion. She has always been the death of the Champion, the weapon that has caused the end of each incarnation, minus one universe that ended in defiance of the prophecy about his Ragnarok... but that's another story. What I suspect, what I fear, is that Ladnikia in your hand will create some problems in the space-time continuum... but knowing about your past with the Time Trust android, maybe it has been taken into consideration.
"Finally, about your dreams. I believe they are just that: dreams. And the strange little man that inhabits them is just the shadow of a dead but not forgotten universe. Maybe the first of the problems I am expecting."
Hypotheses... thoughts... ideas... I am looking for truth set in stone, but all I get are words.
"I can't give you an answer right now. I have to think. I concede you that you have won my trust before, and Jackie has saved my life, but the Hoods and the Futurists have their points, too. And they promised me things I can't pass on so easily, although I am suspicious, even before your words. We'll speak later."
"That's fair. Just remember that the two parties want your powers, your birthrights, or your sword. Only I came to ask for you and you alone."
Words.
I nod my head slightly in sign of respect and leave the room. This time Demeter is not around, and I go straight to my room. I need a shower. The tropical warmth is something I am not used to. I undress and get inside the shower box.
Water, cold and refreshing.
Then steps, so softly on the pavement. But my eagle ears hear them.
I open the door. Ladnikia's tip runs at the throat of the intruder. A woman. Oriental eyes, long black hair. Sensual lips, painted with a fluorescent glossy pink. I know this woman. She was the one to get me the Gaia unit to escape the EPS. What was her name?
"Nadia," whispers the woman softly. She smiles.
I lower the sword. "You are with the old man, right?" I ask.
"Not anymore."
"Why are you here?"
"For that." And she points to Ladnikia.
"You want my sword?"
"It's not yours, and it's not a true sword. It's something different... something more. Something that is destined to me."
I laugh. "You are the first that claims it was not for me to find. And I have met many, in less than two days. Ghosts, aliens, magicians, spirits, and immortals. All saying I am the Timeless Champion."
"I don't contradict that, Euro. Just, I am the Champion, too. I am you. The you of a different reality. But I am the one who deserves Ladnikia. Your weapon is different. You will find it in time. Give me the sword, now that you are still in time to save yourself."
"Ah. To listen to the Neanderthal, Ladnikia should not be the weapon of any incarnation of the Timeless Champion, minus one, he said. Was he talking about you?"
"No, he was talking about Nemo, the man of a dead universe. But he had to give up his hand for the sword, and so he never touched her, handling the sword by a strangely shaped hook. He actually mastered the sword, and not the reverse, like all other bearers of Ladnikia. I deserve it because I had it since the first moment I arrived in this reality. It subdued me, like all others. I am now prepared, while you will become her slave in no time, Euro. GIVE HER TO ME!"
"No way, lady. I feel a bind. She's the claw this eagle needs."
"Hand her to me for just a moment."
"I don't think--"
"Just let me touch the hilt..."
"No, no."
She puts forward her hand, but Ladnikia jumps away, rotating and pointing toward her chest. She jumps back, landing over the open window. "I never thought it could be so far advanced after just a day. You are her slave, don't you see?"
I stand silent.
She looks outside the window. "I will try to help you. Just don't side with anybody, Ed, even with the old man. There are things that don't look right with him."
Words. So many words.
"Tell me more."
"I have no time. It's just something that was happening in my universe before my voyage here, and which began to appear here, too. Have you read any newspapers lately? The little pieces about strange things? Whole Norwegian and Inuit villages gone missing... penguins disappearing?"
"Yes, actually I did read something about it. What's that about?"
"I don't know. But I have seen... things in Heligoland, at the old man's mansion, that are related to that. And he was gathering information about the EPS. Don't you see a path, there, knowing what he is?"
I think for a moment. Why should I waste time with riddles? "No, you can tell me."
She stares at me. "You seem a lot less intelligent than I thought. We'll meet later, man. Remember: Ladnikia is MINE!"
And she jumps out the window. When I look outside, she has disappeared.