Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (58 page)

“Have I changed that much?”
Terra asked.

“Not just change. Choices,”
the double said.

“Choices?”

“Time is like life's
choices. It branches as we age, opening up new possibilities. Yet
when we grow old, our choices begin to narrow again, ending in only
one possibility; death.”

“So this place is a possible
future?”

The double shook her head.
“No. This place is where your most important choice was made.”

“The choice to join the
Legion? I suppose I did make that choice in my quarry.”

The double's eyes narrowed as
she spoke in a low tone. “This place is no longer yours.”

A rumble in the distance drew
Terra's attention before she could respond. Terra looked up to see
the pearl towers of Saturn City, rising around her quarry as though
sprouting from the earth like weeds. When she looked back at her
double, Terra froze and her eyes opened wide.

The double stood with a streak
of blood running down her face. “The choice is done.”

Terra had to stop herself from
stepping back when she saw the waters in the quarry turn blood red.
The water cleared just enough for her see the twisted roof of a car,
laying in the bottom of the pool. She faced the double. “I didn't
really have a choice. If I had stayed in my time, I would have died.”

The blood on the double's face
dried in an instant as her skin turned putrid gray. “You made the
choice without this knowledge. Do not forget the lesson of the beast,
Cerberus. You walk the path of blood now. Better to die by fate's
design than become a monster by choice.”

Terra watched in silence as
the double rotted away in front of her. Flesh turned black before
crumbling into dust and bones. Even the bones turned to dust seconds
later as the spires of Saturn City began to creep over Terra's
quarry. Terra climbed out of her quarry just as Saturn City
completely overtook it.

She stared at the city as it
grew before her. Terra looked down when she felt something brush
against her leg. White roses had sprouted around her.

While Terra wondered what the
truth of this trial was, the shining city around her dimmed and
darkened. A red light shined on the other side of the city. It grew
in strength as a loud rumble sounded. Terra looked down to see her
shadow stretching off into the distance. It connected with another
shadow that stood on the opposite side of the city. Facing Terra was
a figure in black that mirrored her. As the figure, a woman Terra
guessed, walked, black roses grew in her wake. They faced one
another, Terra in white with a shieldwatch glowing blue and a the
figure in black with her shieldwatch glowing red.

With a simple gesture, a
darkness emanated from the shadowy figure and Saturn City shattered.
The pearl towers and white steel were ripped apart. Shards of the
city flew into the sky while Terra shielded herself from a tremendous
wind. She could hear screams over the roaring winds and wailing
metal. When the wind died, Terra looked up to see an endless field of
corpses and wreckage between her and the shadowy figure. Beside each
corpse was an aeon edge that stood upright with its tip in the
ground.

Terra stood for a long moment
before she realized what the Trial of Truth was showing her. The
mangled wreckage, the corpses, and the aeon edges all stood in a
twisted perversion of Kairos's Garden. Before Terra could wonder
further, the shadowy figure turned and left. Then Terra's
surroundings faded and she stood back on the plain hex floor next to
the pillar of light.

She stood alone for a long
while, thinking. Terra couldn't help but feel that there was a
warning there of something worse to come.

∞

Terra stepped onto the edge of
the salient, feeling far more tired than when she had entered.
Another Sybil waited for her there, the one named Morta.

“So the null has crossed
both fear and truth,” she said in a condescending tone. “Well you
should not worry now, null. The darkest moment is over. One test
remains.”

Terra shot the Sybil a nasty
glare before checking her shieldwatch. her eyes went wide. “What?
Only four hours left? I wasn't in the Trial of Truth that long!”

Morta grinned. “Walking near
the Temporal Singularity distorts time. You were in there for over a
day. The Fatigue and hunger are catching up to you now.”

Terra could believe that. Her
stomach hurt from hunger while her mouth felt dry. It was hard enough
just to stand and her feet seemed so heavy right now. She then
Restored herself with the shieldwatch, but the mental fatigue
remained. Despite the fatigue, her vision during the Trial of Truth
lingered in her mind.

“I saw an omen,” Terra
said as she turned to Morta.

“Really, null? I find that
difficult to believe.”

“I saw Saturn City
destroyed,” Terra said, feeling as though she had to warn someone.

Morta chuckled. “I doubt
that. If there were a threat to the city, we would have precogged
it.”

Terra sighed. She should have
expected the Sybil to ignore her, though Terra didn't know if she
should take herself seriously.

“Besides,” Morta said as
she turned back to the salient. “If another threat had emerged,
fate would have then led Silverwind to a new squire.”

Terra hesitated. “Um.”

Morta then pointed at the edge
of the salient. “The Final Trial awaits you, tiro,” she said
before turning to go.

Terra walked to the fadeline
ahead while pondering the strange sights she had seen in the Trial of
Truth. There couldn't be a real plot to destroy the city? Saturn City
was such a huge place to her. The thought of something or someone
powerful enough to destroy it seemed absurd. She stepped onto the
fadeline, but rather than fading out, the fadeline flickered and shut
off.

Terra searched the area. She
looked for another key puzzle or something else wrong, but found
nothing. After a moment, Terra sighed, thinking that this must be
part of the trial. She walked to the salient walls and jumped over
the side. There she saw the crisscrossing network of catwalks and
metal access walkways that webbed the outer parts of the Labyrinth.
However, she paused when finding two optios lying on the ground.

She ran to their sides before
checking for a pulse. Both were alive and she saw no sign of damage.
Their shieldwatches had Restored them. Terra stood and began scanning
the area.

A loud metal groan cracked
through the air. Terra turned and stared as a massive chunk of the
city creaked, shook, and then fell away into the Edge below the city.
She gazed at the falling slice of the city, panic flaring as part of
her vision came true. In front of her was a small salient that
someone had partially taken apart.

Then, in the salient's center,
a platoon of steel-gray uniformed soldiers appeared in a bright green
flash of crackling energy. In front of them stood a man Terra
recognized. Hanns turned, facing Terra and smiled as Saturn City fell
apart behind him.

However, do not become
arrogant in the presumed supremacy of time based singularity weapons.
Complacency and hubris can be critical weaknesses that even the most
ill equipped foe will exploit. A well prepared force will always
destroy an ill prepared one regardless of the gaps in technology,
numbers, or training. Truly no weapon has killed more soldiers than
ill informed assumptions. Especially when that assumption is
invincibility.

-Excerpt
from
Core
Stratagems of Post Time Warfare, by Time Queen Ananke the Unbeaten

T
erra
drew
her aeon edge in a flash.

Hanns faced Terra as his smile
faded. “You do so enjoy getting in my way don't you, Terra?” he
said before pointing to her. “Fire at will!”

The Zeitmacht soldiers leveled
their weapons and fired. Terra felt a moment of panic before she Sped
her reflexes and perception.

The
bullets slowed as they drew near and Terra raised her shieldwatch to
block. Her Sped vision allowed her to see the green glowing tipped
bullets in detail as they bored through her stasis shield. Terra
ducked, avoiding the bullets that snapped past her by mere inches.
He's found a way
past a shieldwatch,
she thought.

Hanns rolled up his sleeve to
reveal a shieldwatch before touching a holoface. His shieldwatch had
a gray glowing face rather than a blue one.

“How?” Terra asked before
more gunfire cut off her question. She rolled behind one of the
salient's metal pillars. As Terra peeked from behind the pillars, she
saw Hanns and his soldiers fade. Seconds later several grenades
exploded. A pillar of the salient collapsed while the rest began
spark. Terra ran as the whole salient began shaking.

An explosion rocked the ground
as Terra jumped behind a metal wall. As Terra looked up, she watched
a vortex of blue energy engulf the damaged salient. The swirl of
energy drew in everything around it before dissipating to leave only
a twisted mass of metal in its wake.

Terra stepped out to survey
the damage. With the salient destroyed, she couldn't follow Hanns.
She wondered what Hanns sought here? The Labyrinth was far away from
anything useful like the Legion armory or the Temporal Singularity.
In fact it was under the Academy...

Terra's eyes went wide. They
stood under Aevum Academy that contained Saturn City's Archives.
Hanns wasn't after a simple book any longer. He would steal the
single most complete database of all human history.

She activated her sonic
cipher. Chatter erupted from the lines.

“Tartarus has been ejected!
Please confirm!”

“There is a riot in here!”

“All security personnel,
secure the lower levels!”

“All Legion timeships,
converge on Tartarus!”

Terra switched lines, trying
to find one that would listen. “This is Tiro Terra Mason. The Aevum
Academy Archives are about to be attacked! I repeat the Archives are
about to be attacked! Anyone respond!”

The chatter continued with no
acknowledgment. They all seemed preoccupied with Tartarus.

Terra clenched her teeth. What
was she going to do? She had less than four hours to complete the
Final Trial, yet she had to do something about Hanns. She hesitated,
looking to the last salient in the distance. This might be her one
chance to pass the final trial. Maybe someone else would stop Hanns?

Terra frowned and grabbed the
hilt of Zaid's aeon edge while she thought. Hanns had no one to stop
him. No one was going to help her. No one was going to save her. She
would save herself and this time she had the skills, training, and
equipment to do so.

“There you are,” came
Roland's voice.

Terra turned to see Roland and
Hikari approaching.

“We heard you over the
cipher lines,” Hikari said.

Terra took a deep breath. “I
need your help.”

“Terra,” Roland
interrupted.

Terra ignored Roland. “There
is a dangerous criminal who has invaded the city. We need to stop
him!”

“Terra,” Roland said,
again trying to get Terra's attention.

“The city is in danger,”
Terra continued to explain. “If we don't stop him th–”

“Terra!” Hikari yelled.

Terra stopped.

Hikari nodded. “Where do we
need to go?”

Terra looked from Hikari to
Roland. “Really?”

“Wherever you go,” Hikari
said, “I will beat you there.”

Roland shrugged. “I thought
this was all part of the final trial.”

Terra shook her head. “It
isn't. This is a real invasion. If we try to stop it, though, we may
lose our chance at the final trial. We will have to start the
training all over again.”

Roland chuckled. “Don't
worry. I will convince them otherwise. Now where are we going?”

Terra looked up to the
underside of the city. “Back to the Academy. We have to get to the
Archives, but Hanns sabotaged the fadelines.”