*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Date: Unknown. Records have not been adequately kept. While the gate's computer may have held records... that's a moot point, by now.
"...I thought I saw a fire here, but it didn't make sense. Why would a werewolf be alone, on the edge of ruins, with a fire? You lot don't usually have 'lone wolves'..."
The vampire stepped slowly out of the trees, observing the other being curiously.
The werewolf seemed content to continue whispering to himself for a moment, before glancing up at him.
Kevin crossed his arms, irritated. The pack, he accepted their presence rather than try to chase them all off by himself anymore. A random werewolf, squatting in the heart of his old territory...?! That he was not content to observe quietly. Especially not after that idiotic nonsense the last time he was at his childhood home, with human wanderers from another universe taking a tour of the place---and that had just been a short time ago! The silence continued, and Kevin scowled at the shadowed, face-hidden figure. "Well?!"
The werewolf raised a hand, apparently in a wave, and slowly raised himself against the tree. "...I didn't really expect to see you. Or... I saw you earlier, but didn't think you noticed me. I did say hi, but you didn't say anything." The werewolf seemed insulted by the slight, but amused---and considering how his features remained hidden by a hand across his face, the light made it difficult for Kevin to focus on his expression. His tone of voice suggested a smile.
"...What are you babbling about...?" Kevin didn't especially feel like approaching the fire or the firewood stacked next to the interloper. The apparent non-connections---and that this person didn't seem to care whether he made sense---were suggesting that this one was insane. His patience was waning quickly. "Where did you come from, anyway? I've been watching my territory, and you didn't cross my borders anywhere."
"Ohhhh.... that. Well, I won't be leaving the same way... I broke it. Got a little pissed off. You can only go wandering in the past so many times before you miss home... Why are you lurking here, anyway, Kevin?"
The werewolf came around the fire, hands resting in his pockets, and grinned.
//I just saw... Him?!// Kevin's eyes widened, as he looked the werewolf---Edd---over. The man was significantly younger than Kevin expected him to be... It had been more than sixty years, by this point, since his own change. Werewolves aged at approximately the rate humans did...
"...the last dork. Double D. I don't believe it. I saw you yesterday---a younger you, wandering around---but you still look younger than you should..." Kevin mused for a minute, recalling the strange experience, and his eyes widened. "That's right... the gate. Where was it you'd gone off to? Time traveling?"
"Heh, basically." Edd shrugged, and tilted his head. "A younger me?"
"Three little kiddie human dorks walked through here yesterday..." Kevin grinned, fangs glimmering, making a walking motion with his hand, then pointed towards the cul-de-sac. "I was so amazed to see them, I didn't even think about when they'd come from, and decided to play some games. Sure enough, they must've had that controller of yours, and they all vanished in midair after just a short little run. Oh, well." He shrugged, more glad to have realized how they'd done that trick than at this Edd's presence.
Edd's eyes widened, and pain crossed his face. "...You're kidding me. They were first here a day ago?! That... figures." He moved to sit back down on another log, and gestured for Kevin to join him. He seemed haunted by the prospect, and Kevin spent a moment trying to remember when it was that Edd---the Edd in front of him---had first gone wandering in time. Had Double D just missed his younger self, was that why he was unhappy?
Kevin shrugged, and sat at the opposite end of it, still observing Edd's expressions. "Hadn't you gone off... what... a few years after the spread, trying as hard as you could to change the timeline? Still no luck?"
"You're still here, aren't you?" Edd shook his head, and reached into his pocket. The motion made Kevin tense up at the potential threat, ready to go to mist if need be. He relaxed when Edd only pulled out a familiar, if broken-looking controller. "Kevin... I upgraded my gate a few trips ago, the computer mainframe and all, and when I was in transition realigned the readings."
Kevin blinked as Edd went silent, and shrugged at the others' expectant look. "Double D, as far as I knew, you've been dead a half century. Do you really think I'd remember anything about your gates?"
Edd exhaled "Right... wrong 'you'. I forgot about that." He pressed a button to observe the numbers for a moment. "When I was in transition... from Eight-Three-Two-Zero-Zero-Nine-One to Eight-Three-Two-Zero-Zero-Nine, the orientation of categorization changed. Basically... the numbers changed. This world is now considering itself to be merely Eight-Three-Two." Kevin frowned, but didn't seem startled or nervous. "Kevin... remember the world with a vampire you, that Tony brought us to, the world that Eddy died in?"
"Yes... vaguely. I haven't really thought about it that much, lately." Kevin looked thoughtful for a moment, then glanced around the area. "...Are you saying that we're now that world?"
"According to my last readings, yes." Edd sighed, and stared off at the cloud-covered moon. "The world's going to end in a few days, I believe. And I'm tired of trying to change our timeline."
The vampire stood abruptly, and stared down at the werewolf. "You... What do you mean, the world's going to end? You're sure?!"
Edd nodded, tapping his chin in bemusement. "If a group of three Eds---for the first time exploring this world---ran into you and were chased out just yesterday... let's see. Then to One-Seven, then home, slumber party. Day two and powers start surfacing, investigations at the trailer park... back. Sleep, day three, explanations, again to the trailer park, confrontations. Day four, maybe even into a day five? And the rift is opened, and Eddy lost, and a-wandering go some humans, some werewolves, and a vampire." He nodded to himself again, and glanced up at Kevin. "Within five days, yes, this world will be destroyed. I had a bad feeling when I pulled the gate apart, but since I'd decided I'm going to stay here for good this time... Figures I'd come back now. Nothing to do about it anymore..."
Kevin stared at him, frowning at the other's apathy. "Come back for good... You came here to die... So, you, you're sure? This is the world, this is the, the whatever, wherever, whenever that Zero's going to destroy? And.... and you broke your gate?!"
Edd looked down at the controller, pointed it at the fire, and pressed the button. Nothing happened, and he tossed it to the ground. "...Essentially, yes."
"You, you imbecile! How is it your decision to simply let our existences end? Do you fancy yourself a god because you can walk through time?! I have centuries, millennia of living in me! I..." Kevin stalked away from the fire, fists clenched together, and the shadows writhed beneath him. "How dare you!"
Edd rose slowly, staring at Kevin. "...Our universe has already been destroyed, Kevin. We watched the rift open, and I've seen many of the possibilities that spring up from that... And I can only walk through it. I can't change our universe's existence, or end it. If it turns out that we're now one of the possibilities for this world that don't get destroyed... then we aren't. Nothing I see myself as able to do will change it, and I'll let things take their course... without interference."
Kevin shook his head. "Just because the world's going to end doesn't mean we have to. But, no, you wrecked the thing---and you probably don't even care enough to build another." He gave a short laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. "Honestly, I don't understand you. I really don't. I forgot about you years ago, and haven't thought about being a kid... but... here you come, just, with a death wish and wanting to take the rest of us with you?" Before Edd could protest, Kevin shook his head as he remembered more about Edd's initial departure. "That's right, you got upset and obsessed, wanting to fix everything that went wrong with the world... Why didn't you just kill your younger self? What does this do?"
"...The world's dying anyway. Think of it as a mercy kill, Kevin..." Edd's voice had dropped, and he was gazing out at the clouds, at the lit region of a hidden moon. "...And it's not anything that I'm doing, or causing. I'm just trying to come home to be here when it ends, and let things happen as they would have."
The vampire felt the faint whisperings in his mind he hadn't felt since the last time he spoke with Jonny's kind, and his eyes flared up. "When I was young, anyone from you to Tony could manipulate me, but I've lived, I've fed, I've killed for decades...! You can't just sneak in my mind and... you.. don't......"
His eyes went blank and his body relaxed into a still, standing position. Edd approached him, touching a hand to the vampire's forehead. "Go home, Kevin... go to your brood, or whatever you're calling it now, go to Nazz. There are only a few more days of life within us anyway... Forget this, forget my presence, forget my gate. Go, do whatever you would have done if I hadn't come by..."
The vampire's eyes, still blank, looked skyward and he transformed to take back to the sky. Edd stood and watched the shape go off... and went about dousing his fire, hiding the remains and pile of wood, and began walking.
*~*~*~*~*
"The world has come full circle, I believe..."
Tony scowled at the man sitting on the ledge. The mysterious figure had approaching, simply walking between the zombies, walking up the stairs, and come out to smile and cheerfully greet Eddy. Despite all of Tony's disinclinations around the place to avoid everyone from coming to the building, all the mental impressions that a being would simply not want to approach... he'd just come up. And then he gone on to introduce himself as 'Double D'.
Eddy was still in shock, shivering where he stood, staring at the man who'd called himself Edd, and trying to draw the connection with what portion of his faculties were intact.
"You don't seem much like that kid. You really don't." Tony remarked, leaning forward on his chair.
Edd nodded, agreeing. "No, I'm probably not. It's been years since I was the age you two expect me to be. I'm... hmm, twenty six, now? Haven't celebrated my birthday the last few years, you see." He shrugged at them.
"But... why not? Aren't we still friends, or anything?" Eddy looked vaguely hurt, even while this surprisingly friendly older Double D sat there, and the current Edd wandered with the others... wherever they were.
"Uhhh... that'd've been... hard." Edd frowned, contemplating this, and waved a hand at Eddy. "Look never mind that, okay? How are you feeling? It's been a little while since I've seen you."
Eddy's vague hurt banished itself with the memory of Edd's comment about his birthday---in Eddy's memory, Edd went directly from referencing his age to saying 'look, never mind that'.
Instead Eddy was now back in the shocked state, tilting his head. "Uh... okay, I guess. Not much going on here since I can't see what Tony's doing with them, but, it's fine."
Tony's eyebrows raised as he watched his brother's memory rearrange, and he stared at Edd. "...You can do the same kinds of things I can." He stated it, then nodded to himself. "That's right... Did you visit me in my cell? I remembered talking with you, when I started watching this Double D's memories..."
Edd nodded, stretching his arms, and glanced out at the horizon. "Yeah, I needed to find out a few things that you weren't willing to tell me later... and, since you weren't supposed to remember it, I erased your memory. How did you remember, anyway? My guess turned out to be that you wrote yourself a note..."
"Mmmhmm." Tony pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, and showed Edd. "I made another copy after, when I tried to remember what I left out of the one with that little comment... You have time traveling, don't you? Eddy's friend has time travel. That's how you got here."
"Precisely. If you alter the temporal destination---your design does that automatically, but mine didn't---then you can, essentially, time travel. And with your design, it isn't like traveling to a different universe; I mean, with my design,, you remain a separate self than the you of the time you go to. With yours, the person or people traveling alone know that traveling took place----your mind replaces that of the mind of your self in the period of time. I was hoping to use your gate. Tell me..... it's possible to alter the gate directly, not using the controller, right?"
Tony nodded slowly, suspicion growing. "Yeah... you can. Why can't you talk to me about this in your own time?"
"Because in my time you're not available to be talked to. You taught me a great deal during any time I was learning things from you, and Jonny did as well, but since then you've gone missing."
Edd smirked to himself, at that wording. Eddy's mind would need to be tampered with again at the end of this conversation, but Tony..? No. Tony was only going to be told things he wanted to hear, and that would lead to his making the same decisions that had been made the first time through.
The time was past, Edd no longer was seeking to save Eddy... and so he no longer had any use for time travel. His world, this world, was wrecked past the point that he cared to try to save it... better to end it quick than let things continue to draw out. "So, like when I talked to you about the gate design, now I wanted to come and talk to you again." He raised a hand, and smiled more peacefully at Tony. "I promise I won't erase your memory again."
Tony seemed a little more at ease, and leaned back. "I'll take you at your word, I guess. Heh. Even in this time, 'you' keep messing up things I try---just 'cause you've got so much power going for you. And you're even older than I am, so I don't want to figure what you can do. I just have to assume you're telling the truth, 'cause what can I do about it either way?"
They both glanced over at Eddy as an example. The boy's mind had already been 'paused', in a way, as Edd was holding him in the blank state that Tony or the Kankers had been prone to long before... ((or shortly before... depending on who you asked.))
"I get your point. So, you see... I wanted to understand what the difference was between the gates. And if you can manipulate the gate directly, without the controller, then I've got all I needed to do. So...." He reevaluated his earlier decision, trying to recall every aspect of their final confrontation with Tony here, and nodded to himself. "I've got some things to tell you, though---based on my understandings of how you came to realize some things. Have you made the golems yet?"
Tony rose an eyebrow, frowning. "We only got here a few hours ago... Golems?"
"Mmm hmm." Edd raised his fingers, thinking. "Let's see... there were at least two groups of zombies... one group of skeletons... the golems... and then finally dealing with you. You have been developing tests for deciding an 'apprentice', right?"
Now Tony understood, and he nodded. "I was going to test powers here, and I was encouraging some of those zombies to go near them... Is that what you mean? But, if you're here to tell me that I taught you, why do I need to test them?"
"Timeline continuity. I never would have learned the things from you I did if you hadn't tried to test us." Edd explained, still with some fingers raised. //I never would have learned anything from you if you hadn't tested us, since that was about the only time in which you were trying to teach me things. And then there's a time or two in the past that I popped up wherever you were... but, as far as what he's hearing goes, it sounds like his test led to my learning specifically from him.//
"That makes sense, I guess." Tony nodded, peering off towards the horizon and judging where the group was by now. "Eh, I lost my temper back there, but I figured this would give me a chance to think it all through... Did you have anything else to tell me? Like those golems?"
//Oh, yes.... the golems...// Edd tested all of his own mental barricades, and thrust the specific knowledge at Tony. "No, that's about it. Golems, reminder to the other tests.... you may want to check on Kevin from time to time while he's coming, since I think he's going to, shortly, be experiencing some changes..." Edd glanced down at his hand, raising three fingers, and twitched the third. "Oh! Yes. My younger self and Kevin. They'll be needing mental blocks up soon, external blocks. Jonny needs not to hear their minds, nor my younger self hear Kevin's mind. That should be all."
Tony mused for a moment on how much Edd seemed not to be saying, and the utter blankness of the man's mind despite any attempts to look further... Remarkable. And Edd hadn't even said who would be taught first... or what would come of it... Perhaps it was better not to know. Or, perhaps, this idea about time travel would be important---Tony could try explaining things to the kids now, and if that failed, grab his younger brother, go back in time, drop the kid off and try again----with a greater understanding of what drove Edd and Jonny. Yes, this visit from the future was proving very useful...
"Okay, then. If that's all.... I need to work on making some golems. Should I expect to see you around, at all?" Tony wondered aloud, looking over at the werewolf.
Edd shook his head. "Uh, no, I want to get out of sight, and not let them see me... after, probably. I'll plan on seeing you after." His eyes narrowed slightly. "Until later."
Tony returned to planning, and Edd let himself out the door. Behind him Eddy began to unfreeze, and went back to watching the zombies and generally being bored. He walked quietly down the stairs, and at the building's exit stared down deserted streets.
//Gray, empty streets... the end of the world is coming.//
*~*~*~*~*~*
It seemed, in retrospect, too neat. Too well-set-up. And he meant everything---his idle comment to Tony that the world had come full circle had been meant.
Edd, who after the initial onslaught of insanity and instincts, and his following rise back to civility (probably not sanity)---he had been trying to save the world, to save his friends. Kevin and Marie letting go of everything, Nazz being taken, Jimmy, Sarah, and Rolf going missing... Ed losing his humanity as the virus overtook him, Jonny through some twisted logic becoming precisely the pupil that Tony had wanted, Lee and May going missing as well in one of the many sanctuaries of human... Eddy dead long before.
He'd traveled through time, learning to wipe minds of his presence and trying to discover what had happened to heal it. Bringing the information to his parents had simply created another of the non-human species. Trying to go find Eddy had simply left him adrift among thousands of worlds in which Eddy had been held on to, or the gate activated soon, or rescued, or some where none of it had ever happened... and Edd grew envious.
Envy didn't help his efforts, but he certainly felt more and more defeated each time. Finally... now... he'd found Tony, alive, and since the other gate design hadn't proved of any use... What was there to do, but to ensure that Tony didn't go anywhere. What was there to do, but stay in his own world, climb to the top of the hospital, remain unseen until he was ready to be noticed, and after the gate was activated keep Tony away from it.
Edd knew what he was going to do.
He went out, found a place to scan for minds and see that things happened as he remembered. The only times he had to interfere with anyone were when Edward and the others unexpectedly ran into him, and when Tasha---wandering from the same basic region, and clearly the same time-traveling Tasha he'd met before---became suspicious of why he was there.
"Sorry, 'sis'..." He murmured, crouching down and returning to an invisible state while her memories rearranged themselves to fill in the gap. She was from near that 'main' timeline, the one he considered to be the ideal one---where their lives hadn't been interrupted, where all the kids had survived. That world... he'd spent time there. A long time, really, getting a temporary job and a place to stay for a little while. But he'd left before the full moon; last thing he wanted to do was rampage in that state.
Regardless, it was about time to sleep now. If he recalled correctly, the kids being here meant they were more than half way to the hospital from the cave... and would get there within the day.
//...I should probably sleep.//
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Last updated: 7/12/07 at 6:11 pm
