Meanwhile, the elfin heart of Astra is still reaching out throughout
time (piggybacking on the very process that Myridden had been trying to
use in his search of a timeline to use) and reaches forward.....and finds
Fred. This connection eventually plays a part as to why he gets dragged
to this strange room. The nature of the whole deal is why they get dragged
to this strange room.....
The Angel looked over at his partner in this venture, and shakes
his head in silent bemusement. The heavenly being is still trying to sort
out, in it's mind, just how things had changed. Just a short time ago,
relatively speaking, he had been working in the fields and returned to
find his/her/it's Department Head...... the entire Department of Good.....turned
upside down and the whole order somewhat scrambled from what it had been
before.
Scttlebutt had it that if these Rules and Agents, beings.....for the
sake of convenience let's call the angel by a male pronoun......he thought
as only having been emotionless drones.....could have very well have annulled
the entire Function of his Department....instead of just uniting Good,
Chaos, and Order into the Firm (with the Department of Evil being left
out in the cold....as it were).
Gabriel decided to just nod and go with it. It was probably the only
thing he could do....and from all the angel could see....these Rules and
Agents that had been Enhanced or Enlightened.....weren't too bad of folks
once one got to know them!
That's why, when he had been handed this Assignment, he was less put
off by this Agent 4 (why the number?) volunteered to aid in it.
Gabriel almost goes down the wrong corridor when Agent 4 calls to him.
"The Client is in one of the Waiting Rooms.....not down Dirtside." The
soft spoken Rule said quietly.
"What?!" the angel blinks, shocked. The Waiting Room was for special
cases....where special detention/inspection was needed for rather unusual
and dangerous mortals who meddled in things that "Man was not meant to
know....."
"We accidently swept this client up when he touched one of our Champion's
personal timelines by accident," Rule 4 sighs and explains, "The guy was
only trying to save the life of a lady who's Time Anchor had been severed
through a rather unfortunate chain of events by a type 315 operation."
"Oh....so his efforts grabbed onto an analog who's timeline is Protected?"
the angel nods, seeing the problem, "That explains why he's here instead
of on his world."
"Yes, and I figure that we may as well see him here than there......AND
it also combines yet another task that I must deal with afterwards," Rule
4 continues before coming to a door, "See, we have two rather unfortunate
souls who will be adversely effected by your Message. Normally, we'd either
throw them into the Reincarnation pool.....if their religious beliefs allowed
it.....or just reward them to the Afterlife based upon the life they'd
had before the Reset, but......well.
"My Chaos counterpart left me with a ticklish situation," Rule 4 explains
as the Angel looks at him oddly, "See, he Recruited 14 new Champions for
Order and Chaos......without me being present. I was able balance out the
Dragons....but the two human Champions.....well, his nature kicked in and
now I have to bring in another two Champions to balance things out."
Facts and figures flash through the Angels mind, and he whistles.
"Those two Analog types...." he says softly. "The Fred and Astra line......"
"From those branches of reality that has been dinked with by Brazen
Man, RF, and our not so friendly Friends," Rule 4 frowns, remembering the
celebration that had gone through the ranks as the last Traces of the fiends
were Erased by the Higher Ups. "We are on a recruiting drive, basically.
This could work to the Firm's advantage....as well as theirs. Mutual benefits
and all."
"But first the message to our friend mage and seer, Myrddin."
Myrddin looks around yet again to the featureless room, at a loss.
His Visions foretold NOTHING of this.
Nothing at all. The seer was scared, to say the least.
His charge, Astra (he'd tried to Rename her Moria....only to be told
in a tight and annoyed voice to buzz off) was still too enthralled by this
young man who'd appeared out of nowhere.
Human and elf where in a molten embrace, kissing and whispering softly
to each other.
It was more than a bit silly to see in Myrddin's eyes.....that and annoying!
The young man wouldn't even look over to answer his questions!
Nothing was what his visions said they should be!
The mage is sulking when Fred and Astra finally come out of their love
besotted condition enough to actually be "sober" enough to actually acknowledge
the mage.
"Uh.....sorry," Fred began, embarassed at his behavior. Astra joined
in.
Soon names are exchanged and stories told.....and all three of them
are looking at each other wide eyed.
Fred had been tortured by a demoness, fooled into thinking he'd been
in Hell and she'd rescued him for her own dark purposes (re: Only the touch
of Astra's heart to his own saved him from doing a horrible thing, Fred
admitted ashamedly. He swore to the wide eyed (and loving) Astra that he
was in her debt and was in love with her....if only she'd have him. The
incongruity of this elf/human relation didn't matter to him in the least.
Astra, having been changed into an elf to save her very existence, told
him that she loved him and everyone had a breaking point....and saw that
while Fred ALMOST succumbed to evil.....he hadn't. Fred was still very
much the noble man. Her heart knew it and she knew it! She then tells the
tale of how she'd gone into a magical grandfather clock and been stripped
of her Anchor and cast adrift in time. Her very existence was in danger
so Myriddin had attempted to change her to Anchor her. Fred was thankful
for the mage for that, but his heart sank as to what Astra found she couldn't
do with his father, Charles D'Honair.
"Dangerous to tamper with time," Fred sighed, "But brave for trying,
my love."
Astra smiled....then frowned as a fact made itself known to her.
"Mage, I thought you said I'd have my old memories as well as my analogous
sister's memories," she begins, noticing Fred start at that....and then
look over at Myrddin was....keen interest (and possible hostile intent....if
her heart was reading her love correctly). "It was the only way, Fred!
"But I only have my own memories.....despite this change," she says,
waving her hands at her new body.
The mage look sighs, and says he has no idea why this is.....why she
is still here......
".....why we are even in this place.....wherever it is." The mage says
wearily, at a loss.
Fred has a million question still. The top one being is "How can this
time paradox be happening?"
Astra has a few like that, herself.
He apparently doesn't need to wait long, for......
Fred and Astra blink and point as two figures suddenly appear.
-
"I have message
that will explain," the Angel begins and pauses as Fred and the others
drop to the ground and kneel.
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