killer babushkas?

I was just ready to spear this lizard for dinner when it happened. Spiraling darkness erupting from me, lifting me from the ground. I struggle for balance as I hear it whisper secrets of Erebus into my skull.

Your littermates are dead. All eight of them. Murdered by the Masons. Revenge Revenge Revenge.

I'll take it under advisement.

I just met a parallel me who was living with this curse! But in the other realm this happened after Qli was...

Qli?

I see a giant robot with long clawed stilts for legs lighting up the sands from where it trashed the tent my sister and I set up. It lunges away, but with the speed of thought I'm there, ripping into it like a tin can.

"YOU PICKED THE WRONG NIGHT TO MESS WITH MY FAMILY YOU ROBOT CHICKEN!"

I've got it pinned. It smells like a charnel house inside, and looks worse. Straw? Flasks? Coal brazier? How did all this medieval looking crap get stuffed inside a giant robot like this? Was it bigger on the inside...?

I pull out what looks like a mummy? Like an old hag dropped in the bog and left to preserve when the Druid robes were still in style. It's stuffed halfway in a giant stone...bucket? Was this half of it's sarco...sar...coffin...?

OW! IT'S BITING ME! GET OFF! GET OFF! GET...

*WHAM!*

Whew! Hey, thanks Qli! QLI! You're still alive! Um, who's your friend?

caught in between

Qli's tremors started this morning. Then her body started shifting between human and construct, one piece at a time. Ash tried to help her, but the last time she shifted to metal it damaged Ash's neural network. Now I'm the one holding her down in the null-suit Doc Mason built for me for the Steal Head raid just to keep from getting electrocuted.

Doc tossed his monitor console into the sand bucket as it started to smoke and catch fire.

"I'm afraid my theory is correct, Koen. By turning human she's lost control of the nanobytes that remained with her body. She's caught in a vicious cycle..."

Qli screamed as electricity wrapped around her arm.

"...the more human she gets, the harder her nanobytes work to change her back into a form they can recognize..."

Her arm turned to brass. Luckily she didn't thrash when she was metal.

"...and when she turns back into a construct they fall back to their last command to rebuild her as human. And now they're all completely out of sync!"

"What happened to Ash?"

"The nanobytes started stealing the silicon in his nervous system, it very nearly damaged the circuitry in his soul chip."

"Can you fix this, Doc? ... Dad? Come on!"

"This is far beyond Steamlands technology, Son. She must have added this to her system in one of her trips forward. This is Nova's territory."

"So where the HELL is...?"

"She and Six skipped town in their own ship to get replacement parts for the Revenge. They could be anywhere or anywhen by now."

Qli whimpered as she fell asleep in a rare painless moment of stability.

He rolled down a map of the Steamlands on the Consulate wall.

"Her pain comes from the nanobytes craving silicon. They literally tear her apart to rebuild her. Steelhead's humidity only makes it worse. She needs to rest somewhere dry and sandy..."

He tapped on a spot in a desert, far west of Caledon.

"There's an oasis of Steam technology here...it's region called Cala Mondrago..."

connections in low places

I'd figured out how to use the Time Window to contact New Erebus. Sure enough we found a signal. Jeremiah had a smaller model in his Steelhead workshop, I figured he'd use the same frequency. Some minor focusing, and there he was, clear and crisp, direct from Hell. Sitting in the new improved Throne of Hades, dressed in the scarlet robes.

"Congratulations, Grandpa. Are you getting the crown resized?"

"I'm not wearing a crown, Koen. At the self-coronation, instead of holding the sword up high, I raised a rolled-up copy of the Constitution. Erebus is now a republic."

Wow. I had to sit down for that one. This really isn't the madman that ripped me apart on that arco.

"And you got away with it?"

"There was some consternation at first, of course. But with a promise of only two century-long terms of office, that should convince the noble houses to wait out my reign. Pardon...administration."

"Riiight...about that sword? The Sword of the Blood Wing Knight? We've got an Elder Thing eating people's heads up here in Steelhead..."

"And you need the sword, something powerful enough to slay something before Death, like the Titans. Yes, well unfortunately it broke during the final battle with the Hydra. We're still searching the entire empire for the last fragment."

I pulled the knife from my boot, the one I made a handle for in New Babbage from an umbrella handle and twine, with the jagged dull grey rock for a blade.

"You mean this?"

dis is de briefin'

For all the power that Regent version of me had, All he really wanted to do was laze around with Kira in Kittyswitch. This is for you, old man. And for me.

Mmmm... that's good tea. You don't mind if I jaw you for a while, do ya? Cool. Try the cucumber sandwiches, they're delish!

Well, as you can see, being in the center of that collapsing hellgate jumbled my lifecode. I've got red fur and black stripes now. It's growing on me. Qli was certain that BW got sucked into the hellgate and the Wasp Queen's jaws, but I was right there on the rim of the portal! It shut on the Queen before BW made contact with her! The Founder must have got caught in a flux wave from the collapse. He could be anywhere in the omniverse now. Don't count him out just yet.

So there's a new family member of a sort, Xavael. This bishy angel that popped out of nowhere to fight the wasps by Bloodwing's side. I'm not sure what gender it is, don't think I wanna know. Talks stilted worse than BW. Said something about being the creator of Qli's spheres? I'm not going there right now, my head's still spinning as it is.

Bloodwing was in Grandpa Jeremiah for the battle. And apparently this was a good thing. He's got some broken bones, but he'll live. It's pretty tense when he and Xavael are in the same room. Yeah, I can imagine. So Xavael's in a mortal host too, someone in Steelhead? Did offer me a family discount at the store. But between you and me I'm gonna wait til they catch that critter that's chomping people's heads like brussel sprouts first.

Did they ever catch that guy with the sack eating kids? I think I was dead when all that went down. Bast sakes, glad I'm not an urchin anymore.

My littermates are all accounted for. Getting them all in one place to send them home is gonna be difficult. Assuming they want to go home. They were Crown Prince weren't they?

We're not sure what happened to Uncle Marcus. We know he got a fatal wound and fell into the ocean, but one of Jeremiah's submersibles, the Illuminautilus (Seriously, what kinda name is that? Oh yeah I forgot he was in his crazy evil phase) stole the body. Jeremiah says he had a clone on the ship that would have activated after he died on New Erebus, and that when that clone went down with the ship that activated the machines that reanimated Marcus in the first place. Damn, these Sparks have backups for everything don't they?

Ash saw the ship all the way up in the orbiting Caravel and he flipped on the Pandorus alarm. So the the machinery tried to reanimate grandpa's clone and went overboard? Not good. And whateveritis is running that kraken-ship? Very not good. And it's got Marcus, who was bred to steal control of other people's bodies? SO VERY VERY NOT GOOD!

So, here's some pictures of the new me. That first one I...found the last one of Wren's traps. (I'm OK, really! Steel-toed boots this time!)


And here's the obligatory "Oh look at me I'm so Steampunk!" pose. For The Ladies. Muahahaha!

And here's me fixing the Time Window after the Regent drew that portal energy through it. I wonder what he did with all that extra power?

Could you pass me another crumpet? Thanks.

Say, do I smell catnip?

the other side

"HAHAHAHAHA! We did it! WE DID IT!"

Air raid sirens wail over Seraph City as a circle of absolute darkness widens in all directions overhead, blocking out the sun and plunging the city into starless night.

Atop the tallest building, a grayed old neko in a shimmering robe stares upwards, laughing in jubilation dancing across the border to madness. He bares his remaining fangs as his half-blind crescent pupils stretch across crimson. His silvered ears twitch as he tries to ignore the panic of the masses far below.

"It's so beautiful!" he shrieks. "Total Oblivion, all the way across the sky!"

The urchin with the gaslamp heart clutches his leg, her expression of terror betraying her smoky glasses reserved for the blind.

"What does it mean, Regent? What does it MEAN?"

"I'll tell you what it means, Wren! It means my plan WORKED! That lucky young bastard SUCCEEDED! It means...we're saved! WE'RE SAVED! WE'RE SAAAAVED!! HAHAHAHA...."

From the vantage of space, one would see the moon and slowly the Earth itself disappear through the Void's diameter.

Shortly thereafter, everything else - the Sun and the stars and nebulae blur and fade into nothingness.

Elsewhere...there is a universe very much like our own. Except there is a yellow sun missing a blue planet. And exactly where that orbit is missing is where a portal of lightless Void expands from an atom's width to the point where a planet and its moon slides through.

The Regent stares up at the new sun in silence, his knees buckle and he collapses to the concrete. Wren props up his head as the shadow of angel's wings cross over them both.

"Xavael." The Regent chuckles as he gasps for breath.

"Yes, Regent." A pale hand takes his gnarled paw as the white-robed angel kneels beside him.

"The Sephiroth?" The neko's ears perk anxiously.

Shimmering lights begin to glow through the angel's robes.

"The Tree of Life that your sister carried was connected to the greater. It's destruction hastened the End of All Things. That is why the Void became so powerful in you."

The Regent nodded in solemn agreement. "That's why...the Time Lords..."

"Yes. They taught you well. Here, the Spheres are in harmony again. Now Qlippothic can be rebuilt, and I may awaken her with this gift again. And perhaps...Ash may be rebuilt as well."

The Regent smiled. He looked beyond Xavael's face, and saw fresh grass and boughs gently swaying with springtime's blossoms. He recognized the face of the one sitting there reading a book, ,then standing and running towards him with arms oustretched.

"It's...it's Kira!"

"Yes, Koen." The angel closed his eyes and swallowed. "Go to her. She is waiting. The Void burdens you no more."

The frail old cat's chest rattled sharply a few times. Then he shut his eyes and breathed his last.

Xavael whispered a prayer over him as he nodded to the urchin. "The Regent is dead..."

Koen's body shuddered as the Gallifreyan lifecode woven into his cells began the rejuvenation process. His features flowed like wax. The sleek paw of a young neko with snowy fur squeezed the angel's hand. Xavael smiled warmly down at jade eyes marveling at the world.

"Long live the Regent!"

Later that night and across town, a young boy, shoeless, clad in castoff rags and his face covered in grime, stares at his reflection in the plate glass window of an abandoned storefront. Under the flickering streetlight he watches in astonishment as his scalp bulges and separates, and a pair of horns stretch from his temples. He whimpers from the pressure beneath his shoulder blades as two red shapes rip out from under his shirt...

THE BEGINNING

one-way ticket

Qli and I navigated hypertime back to the Steamlands. I made the final adjustments on the Time Window and unstrapped myself to pull down the stairs above deck. As she was making small talk with Hassanov I secured the ether-tether that created a weightless energy stream from the base of the Regent's staff to the Time Window. I took final look at this...thing my futureself gave me. I'm supposed to stab the edge of the portal like a can opener. I recognize the gray blade at the top. It's the tip of that Blood Wing Knight's sword that snapped off while Marcus and my sibs were fighting the Hydra. I still have mine, that I fastened a knife handle to strapped to my leg.

I was back to full strength so I can use my Void Alchemy to control my fall. Here I go...

Where's the Wasp Queen? I could hear her...

Nova's silver ship flies over me, machine-guns blazing and driving the Queen off.

This portal is huge, but the edge? I can't see it! I can tell where it is from this angle from the red light it gives off on the entrance! This is gonna be...wait! There it is! Steady...steady!

Got it! GAH! Enough with the explosions already! What the Hell's going on? I'm stuck here! I can't get my paws of the damn staff! And all the drones are...flying back into the portal! No, not flying...pulled back! Ah yes the Reverse Polarity trick, works every time!

Aaaand here comes the Wasp Queen...yep, she's flailing, probably screaming unspeakable curses in Vespriumese or whatever the Hell she speaks. WATCH THE CLAWS LADY!

Wait, my littermates are fromt he underworld, too! I hope they're out of range by now! Boy that Queen sure is putting up a fight! She's almost through...

What the...Oh NO! Bloodwing's being pulled towards the portal! And the big bug's still snapping her jaws! FIGHT IT, DEMONFATHER! FIGHT IT!!!

time may change me

What was it that made me and the frozen urchin stand there slack-jawed like a Japanese tourist who stumbled into a Caledonian Burns Supper?

"'Oh hell no?' Is that any way to treat your Regent, Koen?"

Floating in the air. Gold and crimson robes. Red demon wings. The crest of House Bloodwing on the chest.

"Would you expect any less from me?"

An exquisitely decorated staff from an estate sale at the other side of the galaxy.

He descended as quiet as a thought in sleep.

"Yes, Koen. This is my doing."

A gold headdress of a bent circle perched on his shoulders and fanning out behind his head.

I cautiously padded forward. "When did you decide to become Regent?"

Gray fur with traces of black. Bags under his scarlet eyes. Slightly trembling paws with overgrown claws. I won't even think about the teeth.

He let me come close enough to scent him. I lurched back. He ignored my response as he ambled towards Wren. "I had no choice. A construct can't become Regent..." He lay his paw on her shoulder, and her flame danced again. She looked up at him with a quivering lip and frightened eyes.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Regent. He chased me..."

"It's alright, Wren. He's unharmed. That's what matters."

I scratched the back of my head, trying to wrap my head around what he was telling me. I couldn't even put together the words. I was afraid to.

"You understand now, don't you Koen? Why a reconsolidated version of your Qli-Nova just happened to be right under you when you arrived from a fifty-year jump?"

"That was you..."

"Yes. Yes it was."

He scratched the back of his head. Looks like he never quit that habit. Still a bit of red on those silver ears.

"In this timeline..." He leaned over on his staff. Was he exhausted from the giant Void bubble? Or was the headdress or his wings the heavier burden? "The Bloodwing's Revenge crashed before it got to Babbage. It didn't get to Qlippothic in time..."

"The most likely outcome..."

"Yes, Koen. You saw how it ended. No one was there when the Vesprium broke through. No one to hold them back at the hellgate. No one to raise the alarm..."

Wren embraced him while he sank to his knees, leaning on his staff for support.

"I miss Father..." Wren whimpered.

"We didn't even have time to finish mourning and rebuild the Foundation before we realized the Steamlands were being overrun!"

I knelt down next to him, whispering as I shook my head. "Why? Why are you telling me all this? We're not supposed to change..."

"You already changed it when you watched this world through the Time Window! The first thing I did after becoming a Time Lord was to trace those energies back to your ship and devise a rescue! LISTEN TO ME BOY!"

He gripped my shoulder with his other paw.

"Don't end up like me! Trapped with a legacy on your shoulders and nobody left to pass it to!" He looked up at me, trembling with bitterness growing in his eyes. "Look at you, aging yourself in a timejump! You can get those years back with the turn of a dial! I'd give up my last moments just to spend a do-nothing day in Kittiswitch one last..."

"FOR THE LOVE OF BAST WILL YOU JUST STOP!" I broke his grip and leaped to my feet. The bunnies at the other side of the building snapped back into land-piranha mode, converging on the space where I had been cowering moments ago. Theirs ears perked and I saw a hundred pair of green beady eyes staring at us. I assume it was the sight of the Regent that made them leap down to the fire escape.

I felt my back arching and the fur on my neck standing on end. "What do you want me to do?", I snarled.

The old, sad, bitter, weary version of me rose and tilted his staff towards me. I looked down at Wren as she pulled a yellow and tattered old newspaper from under her jacket....