Chapter Three

5 hours later

Maria quickly stuffed Ray’s bags with the last of his clothes while Ray watched with the rest of his bags packed and ready.

“What’s going on, mom?” He asked. Maria didn’t respond, and Apollo projected himself onto one of the screens on the home.

“Mrs. Salvador, I have arranged a pod to take your son back to Garren. With your husband being notified as we speak.” Apollo said. Maria nodded her head before picking up some of Ray’s bags.

“Come on, Ray, we gotta get you to your pod.” Maria said while hurrying herself out the door. Ray followed suit and they ran outside of the apartment complex and towards the pod area of Apollo.

Maria looked around for her son’s pod before Apollo made it ding with a blue light. They quickly made their way towards it and began loading Ray’s things.

“Mom, what’s going on?” 

“No te preocupes bebe, mamá’s got it under control.” Maria said while stuffing the last of his things inside of the pod. “Now, get in. You’re going to your father’s while mama’s gonna go settle something.” Ray looked at his mother with a judgemental look and Maria kissed him on his forehead. “I promise to go and see you two after all of this is settled. Okay?”

“I don’t know-”

“Remember what I said about my promises?” She asked. “Nothing will ever break them. Not time, space, or some rich-”

“Asshole?”

“Language. I promise to you that I’ll be back.” Maria said with enough conviction that it gave Ray confidence in his mother. He hugged her. The embrace lasted a few seconds, but, to Maria, it felt like hours. Ray was the first to separate and Maria watched as he reached into his pocket and revealed a locket. He handed the piece of jewelry to his mother before hopping inside of the pod and the door closed behind him. Maria pressed the departure button and the pod jetted into the sky arching towards Garren’s location. “Okay, Riri, time to go save the universe.”

Maria left the pod area and went back to her lab where she looked upon the year of hard work and scoffed. She had been doing the work of tyrants and she was oblivious to it all. She swallowed a thick ball of spit before calling Apollo into the room.

“Yes, Mrs. Salvador.”

“Wipe any and all data from my electronics.” She said while gathering all of her physical notes and research and gathering it into a pile in one of the lab’s corners.

“Why?” Maria groaned as she threw the last of her notes into the pile and began to search her room for a lighter. She opened drawer after drawer until she came across her broken shears in one of them. She picked up the shear and took Ray’s locket out of her pocket, she then smiled with an idea forming. 

She walked over to the pile of notes with her shear and the locket ready and she skidded the locket over the blade, causing a spark to fall onto the notes and start a small flame. The flame spread over to the rest of the notes and books and Maria watched as the flame grew and grew. That was a year’s worth of research all gone. So many late night studies, laughs at incompetence, and memories are all gone. They were all gone, in the blink of an eye and the rest were disappearing faster than wildfire, well as fast as one.

“Just do it, Apollo. If you don’t, bad people will get their hands on my research. Promise me you’ll do everything in your power to keep it from them.” Maria looked at the screen with pleading eyes. Apollo hummed in agreement before accessing her computer and purging any and all information. 

“Purge complete.” Maria nodded her head before quickly exiting the building and running to the ships docking area.

“Okay, all of my work is gone and now, all I need to do is get off of this planet and find a way to expose Quasa- Dammit!” Maria exclaimed as she remembered one important thing. Qusar has a copy of the equation needed. “I forgot I gave one to him! He has a fake one, though,” She whispered to herself. “But, it’ll take him a fraction of the time it took me if he gets the right resources.”

Maria sighed before turning around and running back towards Quasar’s mansion. She knew she had to be quick and silent, but what she didn’t know is that she was going to die today.