Coma (Paranormal Romance) (33 page)

“A liability?”

“If they knew too much, or started snooping
around. Anyway, after being coupled, they would be immersed into
their love, and stop paying attention to other things, stop
questioning methods.”

“Geez,” I covered my mouth, “So Zoe and
Harold aren't enemies. They are responsible for your coma?”

“That's what she said,” he draped his arm
over my shoulders, and kissed my cheek, “And I'm glad they did
that.”

I smiled. Sometimes good can come out of bad
things. “Why were you a liability?”

“My memory omission. Zoe and Harold
apparently thought it would be best to occupy me with you,” he
pulled me into a cinematic kiss, then broke off by saying, “So I
wouldn’t become a problem. Not that I can hold it against them now
that I have you,” he smirked.

~*~

Jessica and Michael's plan worked. He stole
the chip and sent it to her, then she forwarded it to us. It took
us hours to go through it. After it was over, we stared at each
other in shock.

The originals didn't invent time travel. A
team of archeologists in India discovered a set of ancient scrolls
that were originally a part of Mahabharata. It was a manual on how
to construct all forty-eight weapons listed in Mahabharata, plus
several other things such as time travel. After careful examination
of the scrolls, the World Council decided that it was too dangerous
to let anyone get a hold of it. It could have had serious
consequences on world peace and balance of powers. The scrolls were
locked in a vault in India with a time lock. It was decided that
humanity wouldn't be ready for it for another century. The
originals begged to differ, so they broke into the vault, and stole
the scrolls.

As soon as they mastered time travel, and it
didn't take them long since the manual was pretty clear on how to
do it, they killed everyone that knew about it. Time travel itself
had a sole purpose of helping a developed civilization in finding
their soul mates in time-space. It was supposed to be a reward for
people that were highly developed in spiritual and technological
plane. It wasn't supposed to serve as a tool for changing history.
Spiritually underdeveloped originals, guided by their own desire
for power and knowledge, used it for all the wrong reasons. What
they didn't expect is higher intelligence that ruled all realms. In
their self-worship, they didn't believe anyone could stop them, and
no-one in particular did. There was a hidden part of time travel
tech—if it was used for any other purpose besides finding soul
mates, it would bring about the end of time.

When it first happened, Zoe and Harold took
command. They were supposed to learn from original's mistake, but
they didn't. Born in an earlier time, without a fear of
elimination, they saw it as an opportunity to use it for their own
agenda. They forged a plan to divide the remaining time travelers
into two factions—TGA and Elders—that would fight each other until
they weren't necessary anymore. Both factions would serve as a
cover story for time endings. One would be trying to fix history
and the other would be against it, neither would suspect a devious
plan Zoe and Harold had. A perfect divide and conquer scheme.

Zoe and Harold wanted to rule the world from
its beginning till the end. They intended to change history in a
way that they would be seen as Gods. All traces of normal human
history would be gone, and humanity would serve their two Gods.
With the ability to travel through time, they would make their
appearances in any time-space they wanted, creating an illusion
they were omnipresent and omnipotent.

The first end of time came because of the
originals. The second end came when Zoe and Harold founded the
Death Squad—their personal evil army that would take out anyone who
would stand in their way. By reverse engineering, they found a way
to give the time travel ability to those driven by hate or
otherwise morally corrupted. The third end came when they reverse
engineered a piece of technology that would enable Zoe and Harold
to be visible in both realms.

The last piece of technology that Zoe and
Harold needed before annihilating all time travelers and
establishing world dominance was the ability to move their
cryoboxes to an earlier time combined with significant life
extension. Nothing could stand in their way if they managed to
achieve that, and based on what we saw, they were close to it.

Stunned by what we saw, we knew Zoe and
Harold had to be stopped.

“Zack,” I broke the silence, “How do we stop
them?”

“We have to go to the source,” his glance
conveyed pain, and I knew why. The source was time travel tech.

“We know where they found the scrolls,” I
swallowed a knot, “If we move them—”

“—time travel won't exist,” he finished,
closing his eyes, and lowering his head.

“It's the only way. They'll cause new
end-time anyway,” my gut clenched as it dawned on me––we were
predestined to lose each other one way or the other.

“I know,” his eyes, full of hurt, latched
onto mine, “But I can't willingly give you up,” his voice
cracked.

Suppressing tears down my throat, I breathed,
“Neither can I. But do we have a choice, really?”

“We never did, did we?” Those gorgeous green
eyes held my gaze, and I knew what he said was true. Who were we
fooling? For the most part, only ourselves.

“We either wait for the new end-time—you get
deleted from existence, and I live in sorrow while watching the
world become enslaved. Or we hide the scrolls—“ My throat closed
up, cutting my sentence short, “—and have our memories erased. It
will be as if we never even met.”

Zack let out an annoyed snort, “So to save
the world we have to sacrifice our love! Great! Just great!” He
sprang to his feet, and started pacing around the bathroom in
anger.

“We've already been sacrificed. You will be
erased anyway. We never had a chance,” I grumbled, feeling the pain
overwhelming me.

“I can't do that, Lyra,” he gripped my arms,
“I just can't! I don't care about the world if you're not by my
side!”

“You're not the one who'll have to live in
it,” I glared at him, “You will die, Zack! I will have to live
without you, and watch my parents become slaves to false Gods!”

“I don't want that, Ly. But I can't make
myself give you up,” he knelt down at my feet, and placed his head
in my lap.

“I don't want to give you up, either. I love
you too much,” I said, entangling my fingers in his black hair,
“But I can't be selfish, and trade world's fate for what could be a
couple of days or years. We know now that new end-time is
inevitable.”

“We could stop Zoe and Harold,” he sputtered,
hope sparkled in his eyes.

“No, Zack,” I cupped his cheek, “There will
always be another Zoe and Harold. You know that.”

“I don’t care, Lyra. I won’t give you up, and
that’s it. End of discussion,” he stormed out the bathroom.

Left all by myself, I cringed. I couldn’t
stand the thought of giving him up, of going back to my old life,
and never remembering he existed. But at the same time, I couldn’t
live with myself knowing I could have done something about Zoe and
Harold. Billions of innocent people would have to pay the price
because two people were so evil and wanted to make them slaves, and
other two were weak to do something about it when they could. I
pictured my parents’ happy faces in my mind turning into taunted
slaves. I shivered. I was selfish enough to go with Zack into the
future and cause them pain, but I’m not selfish enough to stay if
that’s gonna make my parents into slaves. First time, I chose Zack,
this time I must choose my parents.

At that moment, my bracelet signaled an
incoming memory transfer. I glanced at who it might be.
Michael.
What did he want?
Wondering if I should first inform Zack about
it, I hesitated on pressing play.
What the heck!
––I thought,
and pressed play.

Pleasantly surprised, I watched Michael and
his wife before she died. I saw their happiness, and it reminded me
so much of Zack and me. Soon after, they started fighting about
differences in opinion. Michael wasn’t so sure about his loyalty to
Elders when it came to losing his wife, so he started digging
around. What he and his best friend Jessica had found, besides the
soul mate scam, made them sure they were on the wrong side. Not
knowing the whole story, they decided it would be best to join the
TGA. But, when Michael told his wife about it, she thought he was
crazy, couldn’t believe any of the things he had said, and left him
during one of the worst fights they ever had.

He showed me his agreement with Zack, and his
wife’s return. The grief after her passing away was soul
shattering, and I wanted to stop his memories, feeling my insides
respond to it as if it were my own grief. Luckily, his memories
moved on to his forced retirement from Elders. Then he showed me
Jessica and her findings about the Death Squad, along with their
plot to get on the team. When Zack contacted him about my
Antarctica plan, they saw it as an opportunity to get on DS team.
He showed me how much he didn’t want to hurt me, how it was a scam,
how they planned to tell us the truth, and wanted Zack to fake my
death. His memories came to an end.

Another signal from my bracelet showed an
incoming message. Michael’s face was in front of me again, but this
time it wasn’t his memories, it was as if he had recorded a video
message. He smiled saying, “Hey kiddo. Hope you don’t mind. I
omitted some personal stuff from that transfer.” Crap! I didn’t
even notice that was missing. “Jessica’s a tech expert. Before I
let the Death Squad capture me, she downloaded my memories to a
chip, and then erased them from my head to prevent anyone from
seeing them. False amnesia,” he chuckled. “For this transfer, I
asked her to manually remove steamy parts. Anyway, it’s down to you
and me. Knowing Zack, he won’t give you up, and Jessica is watched
too closely to do anything. If you’re interested, meet me at these
coordinates in five hours. We don’t have time to think about it. By
noon, history chip theft will be discovered, and all hell will
break loose. Or we’ll end time travel. Your choice, kiddo.”

The message was over. I stared at the
coordinates unable to move. My heart was in overdrive.
Five
hours
. That’s how long I had to make a choice. There was a
knock on the door.

“Lyra?”

“Yeah,” I answered, hoarsely.

“Everything alright?”

“Sure. Be there in a minute,” I straightened
my clothes, and went to get myself ready for bed.
Five hours.
Oh, God!

~*~

Zack was tucked in bed, waiting for me,
already half asleep. I jumped in, and molded my body to fit the
shape he was in. He snuggled closer, burrowing his nose in my hair,
and kissing the back of my neck. His arm fell over me protectively,
pulling me closer to his warm body. Mentally, I noted how each
point where our bodies connected felt.
Five hours.
I
thought,
this could be our last night.
Dread gripped my
insides. I turned around and kissed him as if it were our last
kiss. A soul-scorching kind of a kiss. He responded eagerly, but
then broke off slightly, murmuring, “I love you,” against my lips.
I felt as if my body and soul would shatter into pieces from pain.
How could I let this go? Five freaking hours! Damn Michael, damn
Zoe, and damn Harold! I never wanted this war. All I wanted was
Zack, and yet, I can’t have him.
I kissed him harder, hiding my
inner monologue, then said, “I love you, too.” He smiled, kissing
the top of my nose.

An hour into the night, I was still awake.
Zack’s steady breathing kept reminding me how monstrous it was of
me to consider leaving him like that. He made it clear he would
never give me up. But by noon, Zoe and Harold would turn everything
upside-down to find out who stole the chip. They would know their
plan was in jeopardy.
We’re risking the only chance we have to
make it right. Maybe they’ll kill everyone, maybe that’s why there
are so many Death Squad soldiers.
My mind raced.
I have to
do it
, I resolved.
No matter how much it hurts, I'm doing
it.

~*~

The remaining four hours flew by. I watched
Zack sleeping peacefully, and with each breath he had taken, my
heart had sunken more. I prayed we would meet again. In some other
life, some other time. Once, when it’s meant to be, when we could
have our happy ever after. I kissed his lips tenderly, and said
goodbye in my mind. He just stirred, but didn’t open his eyes.
It won’t hurt him. He won’t remember me
—I assured myself
while sneaking out of bed.

I got dressed as quickly as I could, and
transported myself to Michael’s coordinates. When I got there, I
started crying and screaming from the top of my lungs. The pain was
unbearable, tearing through my body. Michael grabbed me into his
embrace, “Shhh,” he said, “I know how it hurts. But you have to get
ahold of yourself. We don’t have time.”

“I CAN’T!” I screamed at him, letting out a
couple of animalistic cries.

“You have to,” he shook me violently, “We’re
all dead tomorrow if you don’t!”

That sobered me up instantly. The last thing
I wanted was to get Zack killed. I sniffled, and looked at him. His
face was serious and frightened.

“Here,” he handed me a tissue. “You did the
right thing, you know.”

I seared him with a long glare.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“Where? How do we do this?”

“My cryo is in Africa. Where’s yours?”

I studied his face, wondering if that was
something I was supposed to reveal. To hell with it! I wasn’t sure
I could trust him, but I told him anyway, “New Zealand.”

“Here,” he took out a handful of money, “This
should be enough to get you to India. When you get out of your
cryo, Jessica will be there to give it to you. Otherwise, you
wouldn't be able to take it with you.”