Chapter 26
The darkness was suddenly vanquished by a brilliant light, and I found myself facing one of the soldiers from the Unknown Man’s army.
“Welcome. If you would just follow me, we can get this over with quickly. The Commander wants to speak with you.”
I was still reeling from Jenna’s betrayal, and I didn’t resist as he jerked me to my feet and hustled me through the halls. After what seemed like an eternity, I found myself standing in a small chamber. Before me stood a man in pitch black clothes. A mask depicting a sun on the right and a moon on the left kept me from seeing his face. The mask had a permanently etched grimace and angry eyes.
“Welcome. It’s about time we had a talk, don’t you think?”
I shook myself out of my reverie. “We just talked. Can I go now?”
He chuckled. “I knew you would say that. However, I’m afraid we aren’t done yet. See, there happens to be a small parcel of information that you need to know before you decide which side of this war you’re on.”
“Oh, what could that be? Do you have a bribe for me?”
The Unknown Man walked towards me and put his hand on my shoulder. He steered me towards the edge of the chamber, where a window overlooked his army. His army dwarfed even my own huge collection, and that wasn’t even counting the machines of war.
“Tell me. When you started this quest of yours, what were you like?”
I shrugged. “Bored?”
“No. You were a coward. You didn’t have the guts to make the decisions necessary to succeed in getting a single man to join you, much less an army. So how do you think you managed to get an entire army out of every single place you went to? Why would every ruler you went to possibly fork over thousands of men for no real reason? The notion itself is simply ridiculous. Getting the race of Man to listen to you is already an almighty challenge. Getting them to follow you is the cause of wars and genocide. What kind of arrogance do you possess? Are you the most charismatic man to ever walk the realms?”
I stared into the glaring eyes of the mask. For the first time in my life, my mouth flapped uselessly. Before I could say another word, the Unknown Man cut me off.
“I’ll answer for you. You aren’t. You started as a lazy bum who couldn’t be bothered to brush his own hair, and much less get up and do something worthwhile. So, tell me. How did you recruit such an army so easily?”
“Did you… help me?” I queried.
A chuckle erupted from behind the mask. “Help you? Oh yes. I helped you quite a bit. Although I’ll give you some credit, I never tried to kill you. So everything that actually tried to kill you- that wasn’t me. But everything else? All me.”
“But why? What do you have to gain from helping me? Aren’t I your enemy?”
He laughed even harder. “Enemies? Only because I beat your card house stacking record. Three hundred and two cards, to be exact.”
He reached up and gripped the mask. There was a slight hiss, and it popped off of his face. For the first time, I got a good look at the Unknown Man. And we looked the same.
His mouth was crinkled with mirth. “That’s right, Drake Jinx. I, the Unknown Man, am you. Isn’t that the interesting development?”
“B-but how? What the hell is going on here?”
I/he shrugged. “Not all that sure myself, really. It turns out that our wormhole power isn’t constricted to space. It can travel through time as well.”
“Ok, I’ll bite then. Assuming you ARE me- and that doesn’t mean I believe you, why are we talking? Haven’t you caused some space-time rip or some pile of excrement like that?”
Drake Jinx from the future spat on the ground. “I’ve never had patience for that, and neither have you. I’m here because you’re going to choose not to listen to the Pisces Empire and flip them the bird. I know that because that’s exactly what I did. The war will start off going great. You’ll completely demolish their forces because your own troops can be anywhere, anytime. But right before you strike the finishing blow, you’ll be stopped by someone you trust. I think you can guess who.”
“…Lilly. It’s Lilly, isn’t it?”
He waved his hand, and a chair appeared behind him. He flopped into it and put his head in his hands. “It’s Lilly. She first tried to kill me during our pre-war feast. I held a giant banquet to get our troops pumped up and ready for battle. She poisoned the wine that I was supposed to drink, but there was a mix-up in the kitchen and Julius Caesar was poisoned instead. The culprit wasn’t caught until the second time she tried to kill me. She had an explosive, and attempted to blow herself up along with me to avoid the final destruction of the Pisces Empire. And like the coward we are, our life is more valuable to us than anything else. We stepped into a wormhole, and she killed several of our soldiers, including Jenna and Patton.”
I stared at him. “Your use of personal pronouns doesn’t seem to be doing so well there. My English teacher would be disappointed in you.”
His hands shot forward and grabbed my shoulders. He shook me violently and stared at me with red eyes and puffy cheeks. “Enough! Enough, blast you! For once in your life, stop the stupid foolish jokes and remarks! You have to keep my timeline from happening in yours! Kill Lilly before it is too late!”
I shook my head. “Kill her? But she hasn’t done anything to me yet. I couldn’t possibly do something like that!”
His fist connected with my face. I tumbled backwards and crashed into the wall. He loomed over me. “You stupid fool! How could I have ever been this idealistic? You will destroy everything you love if you do not stray from this path! It is time you learned that war needs sacrifice! There is no such thing as a perfect world. Look at every single world you traveled to? Did ANY of their governments work well? Did they?”
I rubbed my cheek and thought back. He seemed to take my silence as a confirmation.
“Yes, now you see it. Man, as a species, is corrupt. Don’t get me wrong, there are always good people, but for every good man exists ten bad ones. That is why no human government will be able to persist indefinitely. You and I, we are the only ones that have the power to change this. But as for me, I’m done. I cannot go on without Jenna and my friends. Yes, I am done with this war.”
He grabbed me and pulled me to my feet. “But you, you are not done. Yes, your war is just beginning. You must become the Unknown Man. You shall be the one to destroy the Pisces Empire, and you will save Jenna too. You know I speak the truth.”
He picked his mask up and tossed it to me. “Your soldiers will develop the cloaked uniform that the Unknown Man’s soldiers use. This will prove to you that you are who I say you are. Do not allow Lilly to destroy us.”
“I will…think on this. But what of you? You can’t just abandon your men!” I cried.
He gave me a dark grin. “My men? You mean your men. I told you, I am done with this war. I will go somewhere so far down the timeline that the Pisces Empire is but a speck of dust. And from there, I will live on the rest of my days. I dare not go back into the past. If I did, I risk destroying YOUR timeline, and killing Jenna for the second time.”
“Speaking of Jenna, how do you know her in my timeline? She pushed me through this portal, so she must have been communicating with you before.”
He nodded. “I have spoken with her several times. She does not know who I am, but agrees with my cause. And I made sure that you would receive the correct Shadow in Trinton. I have some connections that are so far from your current power that you would not believe it. But you will, in time. However, now it is time for you to return to the Void.”
I looked at the mask in my hands. I looked back at the older self. “I will do what needs to be done.”
He gave me a quiet look of sympathy, and waved his hand. With that, I vanished through a wormhole.
The older Drake Jinx looked quietly at the hovering wormhole where his younger self had fallen through. He sighed. A soldier walked into the room. “Sir, are you sure he will do wh
at is needed?”
He smiled grimly. “I saw his eyes. They have what they lacked before he came here- a glint of cold steel and an ounce of death. He will not fail.”
“Is that why you lied to him, Drake?” The soldier asked, pulling their hood off.
He looked sadly at Jenna. “It is. My younger self would never allow you to die, just as I would not. But for an army of men who he didn’t truly know, he would have let Lilly destroy them. The Pisces Empire must not go on.”
A tear streaked down Jenna’s cheek. “But the price you must pay for-”
Drake put his finger on her lips. “It was a price I am more than ready to pay. I tire of this world. We will meet again in the afterlife.”
“You are ready to fulfill your part of the bargain, Drake Jinx?”
“Indeed. Take me from this realm. As agreed, for the ability to commune with my younger self, my own life.”
“It will be as you say.”
Drake looked at Jenna with a small grin. He gave her a sharp salute, and a howling wind blew through the room. There was a sickening chuckle, and when Jenna looked again, all that remained of Drake Jinx was a single black cloak.
I fell back into the Void next to Jenna. She looked apologetic.
“Look, I’m sorry. It was for the best and-”
I held up a hand. “I understand completely. Can you hold onto this for me? Just for a little.” I handed her the mask.
She frowned. “Isn’t this…”
I held a finger to my lips. “Much will be revealed, but there is much to be done before then. I need you to organize a banquet. For all our men. And get it done soon.”
Jenna was baffled. “But Drake, why?”
I waved her away. “Just do it. I’m sorry for acting like this. I just need to be alone for a little.”
She gave me a worried glance and left the room.
I collapsed in a chair and stared up at the sky.