Chapter Twenty-Three: Arx

I get transported to Mars 4, Leo’s base. They put me in a power-proof container. When I first get to Mars, I spit on the side and try to blow a hole in the side with some of my special ammo (they still don’t know I have my gun and ammo) that explodes on contact with water. I guess it doesn’t work as well as spit, because the force was one of a firecracker. My ears are still ringing.

We reach my cell, apparently the most power-proof cell of them all. The guards shove me in and slam the door so hard my ears start to ring again. There’s no windows, and the door is really thick. They say it’s power proof, but are they right? I attempt to make a portal in front of me. No luck. The second time, I muster all the energy I can. I channel it all to another portal. A spark appears.

I sigh and collapse on the ground, drained. I have suddenly broken into a heavy sweat. My stomach rumbles. All the energy I had used up made me hungry. But there was a spark.

It was a spark of hope.

“Where did you get your powers?”

It’s about a day after my capture, and Leo is interrogating me relentlessly while I’m tied to a chair.

“I don’t know,” Scowling at my answer, Leo pulls out a gun of some sort and points it at my head. I stare down the barrel, stony-faced.

“I’ll give you a moment to re-think your answer. Where. Did. You. Get. Your. Powers?”

“I don’t know,” I answer firmly. “And I’m not afraid of you.” Leo growls, shoving the gun at my head.

“Fine. be that way.” He fires the gun. Pain rips through my body, shaking me in the chair and pulling something out of me. “Power-stealing gun,” Leo cackles, shutting it off. “Since you’re being so difficult, let’s move on. Where are the others?” The gun is still aimed at my head, but I’m slouched in the chair, the aftershock of the pain still crackling through me.

“If you want an answer so badly, why don’t you just go back and get it?”

“I can kill you, you know. Take your powers and kill you.”

“You can’t kill me.” I smirk weakly.

“Want to try me?” He fires the gun again, drawing more power from me. I’m weakening, I can feel it. I grip the sides of the chair, and gazing at him stubbornly, I stand up. Leo fires the gun a third time, the force sending me and the chair crashing to the ground. I’m lying on my side, one arm pinned under the chair. Something had cracked, and now pain is shooting up my arm.

“In my time, that would have been a violation of the 8th Amendment,” I gasp through my pain. “Cruel and unusual punishment.”

“Well, it isn’t your time anymore, so I can do whatever. I. Want.” He fires the gun again, pressing the trigger as hard as he can. Power is pulled from me, I’m barely holding in a scream. Finally, the gun shuts off, but Leo hasn’t let go of the trigger. What? Leo smiles evilly, clicking a button on the gun. Something streams from the gun and into him. Power. My power. It continues until the gun is empty. I am empty. But there’s a shred, just a shred of my power left.

“Take her to one of the surface cells. She won’t be any trouble anymore,” Leo orders. Two guards grab me, pulling me up and cutting my bonds. My arm is broken, the bone fractured, but they don’t care. They drag me down a hall, up a staircase, and into a lightly armoured cell. I close my eyes against the pain as I’m thrown bodily into the cell, my broken arm hitting the wall hard. The last thing I see behind my eyelids before I fall unconscious is Leo, glowing with power and laughing maniacally. “Power corrupts,” I mutter. Then I hit my head and fall into unconsciousness.

I wake up to cold floor. Pain is still shooting up my arm, but I can move. Mustering all my strength, I pull myself up and onto the thin cot in the cell.

1/10, I think. Or maybe 0.5. I’ve heard that people with levels that low have a lot of potential. I recall the moment in the 13th cell when the spark appeared. I can make that happen again. Gathering my meager amount of energy, I attempt to make a portal in front of me. A spark, but I’m drained. 1/10. More. More. I gather up more energy, and a small portal appears. I can stick my finger in it, but the portal only lasts a moment before it flickers and dies. 2. I try and gather my stubbornness. Now I can stick my hand in the portal. More. More. More. I muster my skill and strategy. I stick my hand in the portal, and come up with a sling. Maybe 3/10.

I take a break and wrap up my arm. I only have to remember that I need to hide it when Leo comes to interrogate me again. Now I try a full portal. It only lasts a moment, but it’s a start. The next lasts for a few seconds. I concentrate harder, and it turns into a timeloop. I grin, despite the circumstances. I’m recuperating.

The next time I make a full time loop. It’s from a day earlier, when Leo sapped my powers. I see myself hit the floor of the interrogation room, and my arm bend at a funny angle. A hot feeling bubbles up inside of me. Anger. Anger can help. I have plenty of it. Anger from getting stuck in the future, anger from my circumstances, anger from Jomo not paying me for the bet, anger from breaking my arm, anger from Leo and what Galactic Control has become, anger from that power-sapping gun…

Anger from everything!

I’m worked up now. I need to do something. The door is relatively thin. I charge it and kick it open. I realize I still have my gun with me, and I load it with a magazine of tranquilizer darts. The last piece of ammo in the magazine is a bullet. I intend to use it on Leo.

I charge down the hallway, and I encounter a guard. He’s so surprised to see me I simply bash him atop the head with the barrel of the gun. He slumps down the wall. I steal his weapons and armor, they might come in handy. I don’t know where I’m going, but it seems in the general direction of some sort of exit. I keep running, and I see some of Leo’s personal guard as I pass. Leo… I have to get rid of him. He has time-travel now. He can try and go back to change vital things in history, and maybe even under his name. I shudder. Time travel in the wrong hands can destroy the world.

An idea pops into my head. I need to do something before I eliminate Leo, something that will defy even my rules for time traveling. I need to change the vital past. I need to change history. My gait slows, and I concentrate on a time loop to the past. 2017, to be exact. It’s not my time, but the past.

I open the time loop and step through.

Reviews

[Peregrinator7]

I put that middle scene into comic form, and I intend to edit it

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

yeah i remember that