Anthony DeCosmo - Fusion

The commotion of Jon’s group entering finally stole Trevor’s attention.

“Jon? What the hell are you doing here?”

Exactly the reaction Brewer expected but before he could convey his well-rehearsed response, Omar pushed to the front of the group.

“I insisted he bring me. I need to speak with you.”

Trevor appeared both annoyed and confused.

“I don’t have time, Omar. We’re kind of busy out here,” and returned his attention to the map in a manner that suggested both Omar’s dismissal and Trevor’s obsession over an idea.

Omar spoke as forcefully as anyone had ever heard, “I have to tell you something, Trevor. My wife told me to tell you. It’s a message from her.”

“Omar, I have to figure out-“

“YOU WILL LISTEN!”

A quiet settled over the room. A stunned quiet.

Trevor stood straight and the glare in his eyes demanded explanation.

Omar glared back.

“You put my wife in that hole. You told her to understand these things. Well she understands now, Trevor. She is not the woman she used to be. She never will be again. I blame you for that. So you will listen to the message she has sent because I think it is why you wanted her there in the first place. She understands now, Trevor, and you must, too.”

Trevor licked his lips and considered.

“Okay, Omar, I’m listening. What is it she understands?”

“She understands why the universe is empty.”

Trevor’s eyes narrowed. Omar did not waver.

“Clear this room,” The Emperor commanded.

Eagle airships create very little sound even when descending. Nonetheless, Ashley plainly heard the arrival of the transport because it came moments before dawn’s first light, disturbing the gentle chatter of the day’s first songbirds.

The sound caused her to sit up in bed not because it woke her-she had already been awake-but because the arrival of Eagle One to the lakeside mansion came as a surprise. She had not expected Trevor’s return for quite some time. Well, in honesty, based on the reports in the media and whispers overheard, she wondered if Trevor would ever return from the front.

Unlike other returning soldiers, Trevor would not receive a romantic homecoming from his ‘wife’. Ashley walked by his side and played her role in the grand scheme of The Empire, but it had been years since she had shared her bed with him, having moved to one of the guestrooms quite some time ago.

Nonetheless, she grabbed a thick white robe and walked along the hall to the main staircase. As she neared the bottom, the front door opened and Trevor hurried in flanked by his Rottweiler bodyguards; their spiked silver collars glinted in the dim light.

“Trevor? Is something wrong?”

“Where is JB? Is he awake?”

“What? Jorgie? At this hour? The sun isn’t even up yet.”

“Ashley, I need to speak to him.”

The voice of the couple’s son carried out from a dark spot further along the first floor hallway.

“I am here, Father.”

Ashley finished her descent of the stairs and stood next to Trevor in the hall. JB-who had turned nine years old on the same day Voggoth’s armies blasted through the Rockies-revealed himself in the gentle light of a lonely lamp. He wore racing car pajamas and clutched a soft little stuffed animal-Bunny-wrapped in a small blanket.

A tremble in the boy’s body suggested Jorgie felt frightened.

Ashley took backseat to Trevor on all things, except her child. When she had awoke from the strange green goo that had transported her through time along with thousands of other people to ‘ride the ark’ like life boats escaping the initial storm of the invasion, Ashley had come to know that very little in the world belonged to her, including the man she once loved.

But JB did belong to her. She did not care what the doctors said. She did not understand the significance of JB’s body containing a massive amount of neurotransmitters-many of an unidentifiable configuration-nor did she care. She understood him to be special the way all mothers thought their child special.

The voice of the dangerous stranger who had invaded their home six years ago replayed in Ashley’s mind: “You and Trevor here. You started this. You caused Armageddon.”

That cause, according to the man eventually revealed as Trevor’s half-brother, had been the conception of their son.

Regardless, the boy belonged to her. She had earned that ownership during years of care and comfort while JB’s father raced off fighting the war and even traveling to another dimension.

She would not sit idly by. She answered Jorgie before Trevor could say a word, “What are you doing up so early? Are you feeling okay?”

“I am afraid, Mommy.”

To his credit, JB found his mother’s eyes first. Something had happened last summer. Certainly the boy still admired his father’s leadership. He still re-enacted battles with toy soldiers. But JB had come to realize that his father did not truly love his mother. That ‘mommy’ lived all alone.

What a terrible revelation that must have been for the boy.

“What are you afraid of, sweetie?” Ashley glided to JB and knelt in front of him.

“I don’t know. Bad dreams. I think-I think I am afraid of Father. Of what he’s planning.”

Ashley whipped about and glared at Trevor who cocked his head to one side in an expression of curiosity like a dog hearing a new sound.

“What is it I’m planning, buddy?”

The boy struggled with something. His lips opened and closed, but he did not have an answer. “I don’t know.”

Trevor took a step closer to his son.

“I have to talk to you, Jorgie. There’s something I need to know.”

Ashley felt herself become a non-factor in the conversation, a position to which she had grown accustomed over the years. This was her life; a bit player on Trevor’s grand stage. She needed to deliver her lines to the public or press with aplomb, then stand aside and let the star work his show.

“Last year-when the bad guys had me-they brought you to that island, too.”

Jorgie closed his eyes and nodded.

“They tried to put you in the same machine I was in. But something happened.”

“Don’t Trevor. Don’t scare him. He doesn’t need to re-live that.”

He ignored her and pushed, “You did something. I’ve only heard about it second-hand, I never asked you directly. Not really. Not like I am now.”

“I don’t want to think about that,” Jorgie opened his eyes and insisted, but it did not sound as if he might be afraid. It sounded more like he felt it inappropriate to discuss.

“You have to, Jorgie. I must know. It’s important.”

Something did surface in the boy’s memories. He turned to his mother and said, “They were bad men, Mommy. The Missionary man said he went looking for you back when I was in your belly. Back when the war first started.”

This confused Ashley. She answered, “I don’t-I don’t remember anything like that.”

“You were gone,” Trevor reminded. “He must have went looking for you right away. Something saved you. Something took you away on the ark. When I got to your house there was nothing. But-but at my parent’s house,” Ashley saw Trevor’s mind return to the early days of the invasion. After a pause he continued, “There were a couple of Deadheads waiting for me. They killed my parents. If it hadn’t been for the dogs, I would’ve been killed. Deadheads come from Voggoth’s realm. That son of a bitch tried to take us out right off the bat. I’m guessing that was pretty much against the rules.”

“What do you mean- rules?”

Trevor brushed her aside and spoke to JB, “But what happened then? What happened when they plugged you into the machine?”