"I should have never gone..." I said standing on the edge of a building in Lower Manhattan, staring at another building that was burning.
"Where would you be if you hadn't?" said the voice deep within my mind.
"With my wife and child...not destroying those who had done this to me."
"There's only one other thing left to do, Jake. You know what that is."
"Find those responsible for doing this to us."
"...and kill them."
* * *
Time Resolve - Factor 9
November 2, 697 A.S.
"This is Mercenary Charlie-1. Requesting permission to dock." I said while keying my comm system. Ithaca stood resolute in space. The eerie silence around the station interrupted oddly by a random strike of electrical energy inside the Badlands. The only signs of light coming from the anomaly a few dozen clicks away.
"Mercenary Charlie-1, do you have clearance to be in this sector of space?" replied the station.
"Yes, I do. This is Jake A. Gill, Mercenary ID 77 Beta Alpha November."
Silence filled the comm for a few seconds before the stationed replied with acceptance of the code. I proceeded to dock one. I gently landed my ship inside the airlock and climbed out. Immediately after setting food on the deck, I was met by three high ranking Liberty Navy members.
"We were told you were not going to arrive for a few days Mr. Gill." said the Navy general at the head of the group. His name tape read "Anders".
"It's just Jake, General Anders, and my previous assignment was up, so I figured I would get ahead of the curve and get here before the rest of my team did."
The general looked at his other officers with a confused look and then back to me.
"You will have to...excuse us Mr. Gill. The officers here and I must discuss something of great importance. Your room will be available at the scheduled time you were supposed to arrive, I'm sorry, the reservations were already made and someone is currently residing within them. Please, have a look around however, but steer clear of the restricted areas."
The General and his other officers walked away quickly. I opened the bay on my ship and grabbed my bags, heaving them over my shoulder.
"I hate the damned Navy." I mumbled as I walked towards the bar.
"Mr. Gill, your room is ready now. Mr. Gill your room is ready." screeched the intercom. I drank the rest of my drink and slipped the bartender a nice tip. I picked up my bags and headed towards the office in the station to get my room number.
"Jake Gill. I'm here for my room." I said as I arrived at the front desk. The woman behind the counter looked at me with wide eyes as I spoke.
"Very good Mr. Gill. Your room is 522 in Sector B. We've taken the privilege of letting your wife know you have arrived at the station safely."
"I beg your pardon?" I asked.
"Have a nice day Mr. Gill." she said and walked back into the back of the office, slamming the door shut.
"I don't have a wife..." I said to myself as I carried my luggage to the room I was given. As I walked down the hallway, I counted the room numbers as I walked. "518...519....520...521...523?" I looked between the two doors and saw no evidence of a room 522. "Where the hell is my room?" I looked across the hall and saw only the windows to the outside of the station. I shook my head and walked back to the office.
"Excuse me, miss? There isn't a Room 522 on board this station."
"Hello sir, how can I help you?" the woman asked, this time her hair a different color.
"You gave me room 522? There isn't a room 522 on this station."
"Sir, I did no such thing. Would you like me to set you up with a room however?"
"You did...you gave me room 522 and told me that you had called my wife...when I don't have one."
"I'm sorry sir, I did not do any such thing. I would remember that, however I can set you up with a room if you would like."
"That won't be necessary. Can you tell me where to find General Anders?"
"There is no General Anders on board this station sir, there is a Lieutenant Anders however, I can put you in contact with him if you like."
"Sure, might be his son or something, maybe I can track his father down."
A few minutes went by and after a page a man came up the steps, looking almost identical to General Anders that I had spoken to an hour before. As he approached me, a look of shock came onto his face. He stopped in front of me.
"Impossible." he said. "Julia. Go back and take care of paperwork, I have to talk to Mr. Gill here."
"For the last bloody time, it's Jake! What the hell is going on here? Where's General Anders?!"
"Jake...I am General Anders, only 38 years in the past."
I woke up. I was laying on the floor of the station. The last thing I remember was the Lieutenant telling me he was the General 38 years in the past. As I gained my senses, I noticed the station around me was completely destroyed. It looked like it had been this way for a few decades at least. The bulkheads were collapsing in on themselves and the power looked like it was almost out of juice. The lights were dimly lit and the most of the hallway was collapsed down several floors.
I groaned and sat up slowly.
"...this is a seizure! Freeze! Comply with the..."
"What? Whose there?"
"...comply you will be..."
A splitting headache felt like it was about to tear my head in two, I grabbed my entire head with my arms and screamed.
* * *
I opened my eyes in the middle of a war zone. The military was kicking in doors on what looked like Manhattan. How had I gotten here from the station?
"Merc! Who are you with? The LPI or the Rogues?" yelled an LPI officer. "You better speak fast Merc."
"The LPI, of course." I quickly lied. "Excuse me, what year is it? I seem to have gotten knocked on the head pretty hard."
The LPI officer looked at me like I was insane. "It's 377 A.S. of course. Take a break back at the camp if you need it. We've got this Rogue situation taken care of."
I felt the color flush from my face as the officer walked away. Over 400 years in the past. My head split open again, I screamed and once again...
* * *
I opened my eyes and was standing on Manhattan again, this time on a tarmac. I looked to some buildings signs to get a glimpse of the date and found it.
"I've lost my mind. The pressures of this job have caused me to snap." I said to myself.
"Probably, then again you could just be asleep, dreaming your night away."
"This isn't happening."
"Maybe not."
"I'm just going to sit here and pretend like nothing happened."
"Like that will do any good. You're just going to phase out again soon. So you may as well get used to it."
"Who or what the hell are you?!" I asked, screaming to no one around me.
"Whatever you want me to be, Jake."
I sat, my back against the wall and one knee up with my arm resting on it. I looked out over the planet and at all the ships flying around. I didn't recognize any of them.
"Then you're the person...or thing, that's going to answer what the hell's going on."
"Alright. I'll explain it to you.
"At the dawn of the universe, time began. Everywhere in the universe there is energy. This energy lives and forms life. But, it cannot accurately keep control of the time flow, it lances everywhere as it moves, thus there must be an entity that can focus and control the time line and keep everything in motion as it is supposed to, until the universe ends.
"That isn't helping me much." I commented.
"Well, I'm not done explaining. The universe picked a specific person or creature to safeguard the time line, to keep everything in line and keep everything from getting out of control and too hard to handle. This person safeguarded the creations of the universe by keeping everything accurate. However, for millions of years, the original guardian has become...corrupted. The universe has already attempted to replace him once. However, that failed, and the replacement was killed. I'm the proof of that, forever trapped in the timeline.
"But now, there's hope in you. You've been chosen to become the next guardian. You and I have to take him down once and for all and become the next guardians of time."
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