The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything (30 page)

Chapter 61:

No more masks

      Kate found Titus sitting alone on the rubble, knees pulled up to his chest, watching something in the distance.
She followed his eyes to see Whispering gently lay future-Kate down on the ground. She stirred, reaching out, and touched the werewolf's face with her fingertips.

      "What are you doing?" Kate said.

      "Sh, I'm listening," Titus said.

      "And I'm supposed to be the creepy one," she said, but sat down beside him anyway. "What are they saying?"

      Titus raised an eyebrow.

      "You really want me to tell you?" he asked.

      "Just kidding. I can read lips," Kate said.

      Titus sighed. "Of course you can," he said.

      Kate watched her future self place her hands on Whispering's monstrous face. She spoke, not sitting up.

      "Where's your real face?" Kate could see her asking.

      Whispering's words were difficult to make out.

      "He said this is the only face he needs anymore," Titus said.

      Kate nodded at him impatiently.

      "I want to feel your other face in my hands," future-Kate said. "How long has it been? How long have you looked like this?"

      Whispering shook his head. Said something unintelligible.

      Kate turned to Titus for a translation.

      "He said, 'I missed you so much.'"

      Future-Kate whispered something so softly that Titus turned to look at Kate for a translation.

      "I'll return to you if you return to me," younger-Kate said.

      "What?" Titus asked.

      "It's what she said. I'll return to you if you will to me."

      And then, for the first time since their arrival, they watched Whispering transform back into his human shape.

      This older Titus, hair long and unkempt, had gone completely gray, though his eyes still retained a youthful spark. He had magnificent scars across his face and neck, and, perhaps most surprisingly, he wore a long gray beard.

      "The future you looks like an aging hippie rock star," Kate said.

      Titus didn't respond.

      She glanced up to see the slightest smile start to grow on his face.

      "Why are you smiling?" Kate said.

      Titus just pointed.

      When she looked back, Kate saw her future self holding Whispering by the face, her thumbs caressing his cheekbones, her fingers running through his beard. Kate could decipher her words this time.

      "This beard is just awful," future-Kate said.

      "I know," Whispering said. "Are you back? Are you here?"

      Kate's future counterpart nodded, a rare, delicate smile growing on her face.

      "Please come back," Whispering said. "I can't do this on my own. I need your help."

      "I'm ready to come home," future-Kate said.

      Titus put a hand on the center of Kate's back, between her shoulder blades.

      She instinctively tensed, then relaxed.

      "No one is worth what he put himself through for her," Kate said.

      "Maybe they are," Titus said. "I think maybe everyone is worth it to someone."

      "No pedestals, Titus," Kate said.

      "I wish you could understand that putting someone on a pedestal really is different from recognizing they are important to you," Titus said.

      Kate didn't answer. She looked back at their future selves, though, and saw them pressing their foreheads together, speaking softly to each other, conspirators.

      "What we believe doesn't matter anyway," Kate said. "He's going to need her."

      Titus looked intently at her.

      Kate stared back.

      "You're so romantic," he said.

      By now, the other survivors started to arrive. Jane and Emily walking ahead of a crestfallen Annie, with no Solar in sight. No future-Emily, either. Kate felt a gnawing in the pit of her stomach that things had gone badly for everyone. Doc sat alone, the collar of his long black coat turned up, reflecting in solitude.

      And then there was Billy.

      Kate only spotted him because Emily was pointing and yelling. Everyone took notice, though, during Billy's reentry, a blazing white figure awash in a glow of energy and light. He held Jessie, who appeared to be incapable of flying on her own and extremely unhappy about it, in tow. Billy set her down and then landed as the others gathered around. Kate and Titus walked up to him together.

      "What did you do to yourself now?" Emily said.

      "It's a long story," Billy said.

      "No it's not," Jessie said. "Flyboy stole my powers."

      "I didn't steal your powers, I temporarily and involuntarily borrowed them," he said.

      "We leave you alone for ten minutes and . . ." Emily said. "You're like a superhuman toddler."

      "You copped her powers?" Titus asked, shielding his eyes as he got closer to Billy's still shining self.

      "No. She got hit with a null gun and the other Dude went to the nearest available host," Billy said.

      "And he decided the appropriate thing to do was give you twice the power?" Kate said.

      "Would you rather he came to find you? It's not like that hasn't happened before," he said.

      "I'm okay without, thanks," Kate said.

      Billy glanced around, his blue-white light aura gave him a searchlight effect when he scanned the group. "Anyway, I'm working on a solution," he said.

      "You mean Dude is working on a solution," Emily said.

      "We're partners, we share credit for things," Billy said. "So where's Solar? I need to talk to her."

      "Billy," Emily said.

      "Because the strangest thing happened out there," Billy said. "Stuff she needs to know. I understand it sounds weird but—"

      "—She's gone, Billy," Jane said, speaking for the first time.

      Kate watched Jane fight to remain composed, her eyes shrouded in dark circles, her mouth a hard line, holding back tears. 

      "She's what?" Billy said softly.

      "She's gone," she said. "She and future-Emily. They didn't make it."

      "They saved the world," Annie said, joining them, looking even worse than Jane did, as if they'd seen their own graves.

      Whispering and future-Kate sauntered in, hands almost touching but never actually grasping.

      Kate watched Annie smile the faintest of smiles when she saw Whispering's face.

      "I remember that ugly mug," Annie said.

      Whispering smiled, but the smile didn't touch his eyes. "She's really gone?" he said.

      Emily and Jane nodded together slowly.

      Whispering looked at his feet. "She was my friend and ally for a long, long time," he said. "There were moments when I felt like she was my only friend."

      "Are you okay, Billy?" Emily said, rushing up to her friend. It seemed like he was about to pass out.

      "Yeah," he said, a crestfallen expression lurking behind the glow of his halo. "I just . . . I learned things I wish she'd known. That's all."

      An unspoken moment for the departed passed, a long, drawn out silence. A soft breeze wandered its way through the broken streets of the City. The light, clicking sounds of a rolling styrofoam coffee cup rumbled. Leaves swirled and then gathered together at the bottom corner of a bent and damaged chain-link fence. The conflicting odors of fire and old city smells permeated the air.

      Finally, Annie broke the reverie.

      "We should go home," she said.

      "You go on ahead," Doc Silence said, looking up at the sky at nothing in particular, his glasses lost and missing, his eyes open flames of purplish light. "There's something I need to do first."

      He stepped into the air, taking flight as if he were simply going for a walk, and then he was gone.

Chapter 62:

Butterflies and I love yous

      Doc returned to the Lady's castle in the clouds to discover it deserted, its guardians gone, its gates wide open.
He walked inside, fearless and ready, wondering what sort of monster could drive Natasha Grey from her home.

      He found her sitting alone in the parlor, a planar knife in her hand, like the one he'd used not long ago to send himself and another timeline's version of Natasha to a different plane of existence, to keep her from harming his students.

      The knife was so thin and so bright it looked like the blade itself was made of still water.

      "So tell me, little Doctor," the Lady said, her voice cold and lilting. "Did you save this world, you and your little merry band?"

      "What happened here, Natasha?" Doc said.

      She ignored him and continued. "I suppose you must have, if you're still here. You wouldn't be able to see me if you'd failed. You'd be dead again, wouldn't you?"

      "Natasha," he repeated.

      "Look at you, without your glasses," she said, smiling joylessly. "I always liked you when you didn't hide behind those silly red things. You're a being of great power, Doctor Silence. I never could understand why you refused to act like it. Why you always pretended to be simply ordinary."

      "Because we've all got to exist here together, Natasha," Doc said. "What are you doing with that planar knife?"

      The Lady looked at the knife as if she'd forgotten she held it in her hand, raising an eyebrow at it, seeming to not understand what its purpose was.

      "Is a place really worth saving?" the Lady said, standing up, her feet bare on the stone floor. "I mean isn't there a point when it's not? Like an old dog. Even if you love that dog, even if you love it with all your heart, isn't there a point where it's better to let the thing die rather than let it continue suffering?"

      "This world wasn't done yet," he said.

      "You would say that," she said. "Forever the optimist. Forever seeing the good in things. Look at you with your demon's blood eyes and your big dark coat. You disappointed me so much, my student. So much."

      "No I didn't," Doc said. "Don't lie to me. Not here, not now. Not in this place."

      The Lady exhaled, a pained smile on her lips.

      "I have lived a life without regret, for more centuries than even you know," Natasha said. "I was here when certain things began. I made myself in this world, and I bound myself to countless other planes, and I can count on one hand the actions I regret."

      "Two of my students died," Doc said. "Not mine, not really, not the ones who came with me here from my own timeline. But I saw two of them die, together. And I can't tell, Natasha. I can't tell if this is because of us, or because of someone else's mistakes, or because in this timeline everything is just pain and sadness. I need you to help me understand."

      "There's no understanding it, little Doctor," the Lady said. "Haven't we talked about all this before? Maybe we didn't, in your timeline. But it's all . . ."

      "Butterflies and I love yous," he said.

      "Attempting to understand it will drive you mad, Doc Silence," she said. "Your best bet is to stop trying to fix things and just coast on the consequences of what you see happening all around you."

      "And retire to a castle in the clouds," Doc said.

      "That too," the Lady said.

      "We're going home," he said.

      "I know."

      "What's going to happen to this place?" Doc asked. "Do you know? Do you have any idea?"

      "It won't end," the Lady said. "Not yet anyway. Beyond that, who can tell? Someone will come along and destroy it. You know that's the case as well. It happens in every timeline. Someone selfish appears and ruins everything for everyone. It's only a matter of time."

      "And what about you?" he said. "What will happen to you?"

      The Lady wagged the planar knife back and forth in her hand.

      "I'm leaving," she said.

      "Leaving?" Doc repeated.

      "There's nothing for me here in this world anymore," the Lady said. "I've overstayed my welcome. I've made every bargain I can. There are no more games to play, and no one to play them with."

      "Where will you go?" he said.

      "The higher planes, maybe," Natasha said. "Or the lower. I'll grow wings and set myself up as a goddess in the Dreamlands. Or maybe wander the Forgotten Places for a while, lose myself in the Mists of Memory."

      Doc rubbed his forehead, studied the half-mad face of his nemesis, his friend. I don't know what to do to help her, he thought. She killed me here, murdered me, but even here, even still, I want to make her better somehow. This is where madness comes from.

      The Lady walked up to Doc, adjusted the lapels of his coat with her free hand, looked him in the eyes, her red flames to his violet.

      "This world was more interesting with you in it," she said. "I do regret making that no longer so."

      With her back towards him, the Lady raised the planar knife, and with a dramatic slashing movement, opened up a thin crack in reality. She turned around to look at him one last time.

      "Take care of yourself, Doctor," the Lady said. "It's true. I do miss you."

      She stepped through the tear in reality and it closed up quickly behind her, as if the Lady never existed.

      Doc stood alone, listening to the creak and sway of the now-empty castle in the sky. He inspected the desk where Natasha had been sitting when he arrived. Resting on the edge sat a pair of red glasses.

      Doc's glasses looked older, a little battered, but he knew for certain they were his. Silence picked up the forgotten sunglasses and put them on. He walked out of the castle in the clouds and took flight. He never looked back.