The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything (34 page)

Chapter 69:

The path taken

      Doc Silence found the Lady Natasha Grey, the one from his own timeline, in a very different castle.
An old stone structure on the coast of Spain, which she had rented with real money, the sort mortals use. How she came to possess it, and whether that money would eventually evaporate in the pockets of those she gave it to, remained a matter of conjecture, but this certainly was no castle in the sky. Filled with life, the sun lit the place and the soft caressing echoes of the ocean's waves could be heard if you only just stopped a few moments to listen.

      He knocked.

      A moment later, the Lady answered the door herself.

      "Got bored babysitting your wards?" Natasha said. "Hoping to find another adult to talk to?"

      "Can I come in?" Doc said.

      She led him into a small parlor. The entire place decorated with a strange blend of modern and archaic. The Lady had taken an active hand here, changing things with magic, giving it her brand, making it more like her own. He knew the building was bigger on the inside. That was probably the first step she took after moving in.

      "So," the Lady said. "What mysteries would you like me to unravel for you?"

      Doc rubbed his eyes beneath his red-lensed glasses.

      "If someone came to you," Doc said. "If someone approached you and asked you to kill me, would you do it?"

      The Lady let loose a short, sharp laugh. "If someone tried to hire me to assassinate you?" she asked.

      "This is what I'm asking."

      "If someone came and asked me to derail you, or put you off balance, or to distract you while they tried to commit the crime of the century, I hope you won't be offended if I tell you I'd do it if the offer had an element to it that benefited me," she said.

      "That's not what I asked," Doc said.

      "I know," the Lady said.

      "Well?"

      "Darling, if someone asked me to murder you I would wipe their very existence from this planet," she said. "I would burn them from the multiverse. I'm able to do that, you know."

      "I'm well aware, Natasha," Doc said. "I just didn't know what your response would be to the request."

      The Lady raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm vaguely insulted," she said.

      "We've been on opposite sides for such a long time," Doc said. "I was just curious."

      The Lady ran a hand through her hair, smoothing it back.

      Doc found himself almost amused by how human she'd dressed today, a white cotton shirt, khaki shorts, slip-on sandals. An ordinary, if well-to-do woman on vacation. Not quite in disguise, but abandoning her role or roles. Not looking like someone with the power to do almost anything she wanted.

      "Doctor, I have almost everything I could ever need, and I can get anything I don't already have," she said. "But the one thing I
am
in very short supply of is friends. And, no matter how much we clash, I know I have a place in your heart. You might very well be the only one in this reality I can still say that about. Why would I ever destroy something so unique, so precious?"

      "What if they offered you something better?" Doc said.

      "There's nothing better than to be loved, Doctor Silence," the Lady Natasha Grey said. "Even monsters like me know that there's nothing whatsoever in all the worlds, above and below, that's more valuable."

      Doc smiled.

      "I'm . . . remarkably relieved to hear you say that," Doc said.

      "Well then," the Lady said. "Now that you've insulted my honor and questioned my loyalty, can I offer you a drink?"

      "I should get back," Doc said. "Strange things have happened lately."

      "You smell like time travel," the Lady said. "You should try to get that fixed."

      "I'm trying," Doc said. "Soon. I'll come by again soon."

      "Good," the Lady said. "You spend too much time with those little minions of yours. The sunsets here are glorious."

      She showed Doc to the door, and watched him take flight, curious why he chose to simply fly away instead of moving through space by employing proper magic. Needs time to himself, she thought. The twisted hint of another timeline on him. No good has ever come from time travel. No one ever returns the same way they left.

      And when he was gone, Natasha went to a room that never existed before she bought this castle, and drew back a thick ruby curtain. Behind it, a sculpture of a woman stood waiting. This clay woman was ordinary, though not without charm, smaller than Natasha herself, in a neutral pose. Natasha picked up a molding tool and finished a few more small arcane marks pressed into the clay, some on the woman's inner wrist, some on her lower back, a tiny emblem behind her ear.

      And then she was ready.

      The Lady Natasha Grey leaned in and whispered in the statue's ear.

      "Lady Dreamless, Queen of the Dreamless Lands, your vessel is ready," Natasha said. "My debt is paid. You are welcome here."

      The clay woman opened her eyes, her skin warming from gray to pale, pale white.

      And she smiled.

Epilogue:

It fell from the stars

      Jane, Billy, and Emily sat on the roof of the Tower, watching the sun set over the City; clouds drifted by lazily.
Emily, as always, let her feet dangle over the edge. Billy was half-tempted to nudge her off just to watch her freak out for the half-second she always forgot she could fly.

     
These are the moments I wonder why I chose you,
Dude said.

      Come on, Billy thought. I'm the best partner you've ever had.

     
There is so much more time to find an improvement
, Dude said.

      "Anybody else feeling really not indestructible right now?" Emily said. "I mean, I feel so destructible I'm thinking about petitioning for a name change."

      "We made it home, Em," Jane said. "That's all that matters."

      Billy noticed Jane had been quieter than ever since they had returned and hadn't known quite how to behave around her. Nothing felt appropriate. "I don't think it's all that matters," Billy said.

      "I know," Jane said. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that we have to try to remember that this is our world. This is where we belong."

      "Have you talked to Broadstreet since we got back?" Billy said.

      She sighed heavily. "Yeah, that was more than a little bit awkward," Jane said.

      "Did you tell him what happened?" Billy asked.

      "Absolutely not," she said. "Look at how it's affected the three of us! And we're used to confronting this weird stuff. I wouldn't put that burden on a regular person."

      "Were you at least a little bit nicer to him?" Emily said.

      "I was," Jane said. "It's pretty hard to be mean to someone who you know was a hero in a different timeline."

      "Yeah, about that," Billy said. "Winter recruited Bohr for the Department."

      "Can't kill him for what he did in a different timeline," Jane said.

      "It worked in the
Terminator
," Emily said.

      "It did not work in the
Terminator,
" Billy said. "That's why there were about twenty five sequels. It kept not working!"

      "Anyway," Jane said. "It's a way to keep an eye on him. Maybe help him do better this time around."

      They sat in silence for a few minutes. The sun crept toward the horizon, turning the sky from gold to violet.

      Emily pretended to spit over the edge of the Tower—sound effects and all.

      Jane nudged her to cut it out.

      Emily rolled her eyes.

      "You know, I wish we just traveled to outer space instead," Emily said. "That would have been so much less depressing than a horrible post-apocalyptic future."

      "You say these things," Billy said. "But it's not like something absolutely horrible can't like, attack the Earth or whatever this very moment."

      "I'm just saying, in the overall scheme of things, space adventures fun, time travel adventures depressing," Emily said. "A time honored tradition."

      "I'm going to push you off the edge again," Billy said.

      "Try it, Glow Worm," Emily said.

      Jane jumped to her feet.

      Billy did the same, automatically, with absolutely no idea why.

      Emily stayed sitting. "What?" she said.

      "What's that?" Jane said pointing in the distance.

      Just above the horizon, a bright streak of blue-white light fell from the sky, flaring as it burned through the atmosphere.

      "I don't have a clue," Billy said.

     
Go,
Dude said.

      "What?" Billy said.

      "I didn't say anything," Emily said.

     
Go to it. Find where it lands. Now
, Dude said.

      Billy launched into the air. "We gotta get there," he said.

      "I'm coming," Jane said.

      "I can't keep up!" Emily yelled.

      "Meet us," Billy said. "We need to get there now!"

      He thrust both arms forward, rocketing across the evening sky. Jane kept pace, though not as easily as she once had prior to Billy getting his unexpected power-boost during their trip to the future. The two lanced through the air, a streak of blue-white and one of red-gold, following the trajectory of the falling star. They watched the impact, saw a flash of light and heard a sonic boom. The duo flew faster. They located the crash site a few miles outside the City, a crater in the middle of a national park, just a few feet away from a small lake. The ground inside the hole was burned a grizzled black.

      And a living creature lay in there on its back.

      Shaped like a human, it had two arms, two legs, and a head. The similarities to the human species started to diverge there, with the appearance of large, luminous green eyes, a slit-like mouth, and reptilian skin. The creature wore a uniform of sorts, dark blue with white piping, though much of it was burned or ripped away. Raw wounds, some almost healed, marred the being's scaled skin. Then it started to speak in a language neither of them understood.

      "Dude, can you translate?"

     
I know this language
, Dude said.
Let him talk.

      Emily arrived then, cursing loudly, complaining about the inequities of second-rate travel.

      "Every time," she said. "You have the warp drives and I'm puttering behind you like a 1920's biplane. I'm tired of it."

      "Em, hush," Billy said.

      He climbed into the crater and lifted the alien gently so that it could sit up.

      Dude performed translator duties for both of them. 

      "They are coming," the creature said. "The enemy. They are coming for your world."

      "What enemy?" Billy said. "Who's coming?"

      "You need to be ready, you should prepare . . ."

      "Prepare for what?" Billy said.

      "This sounds as terrible as it could possibly be," Jane said.

      "Dude, I need some help here," Billy said.

     
Remember, when we first met, I told you that you had a nemesis, and you had no idea who it was?
Dude said.

      Billy felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Oh, boy," he said.

     
Your nemesis is coming,
Dude said.
This being is another of us, a Luminae and a host.
And they have traveled to warn us.
The nemesis is on the way to Earth.

      "And they're from outer space?" Billy said.

     
Unfortunately
, Dude said.

      "Emily!" Billy yelled. "You had to make that joke about traveling to outer space, didn't you?"

      "Let's pretend I didn't," Emily said. "What do we do now?"

      "We get ready," Billy said.

A Brief Interview with Author Matthew Phillion

When you write about superheroes, it pretty much goes without saying that you eventually have to address time travel.

Matthew Phillion:
Time travel, alternate timelines, and superheroes are inherently linked together. Whether you're talking straight up time travel like "Days of Future Past" or "Elseworlds" style stories like "The Nail" or "Red Son," some of the most powerful and important superhero stories directly talk about other futures, or other presents.

Did you think you'd get there this soon in
the Indestructibles
series?

MP:
I knew the first few story arcs for
the Indestructibles
before I even sat down to write Book 1, to be honest. I debated quite a bit between time travel and another time-honored superhero story tradition as the follow up for
Breakout
, but taking the kids into the future just felt right for Book 3.

Did you know exactly how time travel would work in
the Indestructibles
universe?

MP:
There was a balance between needing to make things up as I went along and actual time travel theory (I love that there is legitimate time travel theory out there to read). To tell you the truth I didn't want to make too many hard rules too soon. Time travel is so big, and has the potential to be so complicated, I didn't want to tie my hands for future stories.

You take the team to some dark places in the third book. What was the reasoning behind that?

MP:
Any series about young heroes is also about growing up. A story about time travel allows for some really interesting questions to be asked—what if you don't like what you've become as an adult? What if this future version of you has made decisions you don't agree with? And if you don't like the future you see in this grown-up version of yourself, what can you do to build a better future for yourself?

The characters say several times that you can't change the past, you can only make things different. Will
the Indestructibles
walk away from Book 3 different?

MP:
One of the things about Jane, Billy, Titus, Kate, and Emily that I truly love is that they grow and change with each new book in ways I never expected when I set out to create them. The things they experience in this alternate timeline will have a lasting impact on how they view the world, and especially how they view their own actions. They’ve always wanted to make a better world—with
The Entropy of Everything,
they realize they can also strive to make a better future as well.