Love My Angel of Death 3

Posted on Thu Jun 15th, 2023 @ 3:22pm by Watch Leader Frederick Hollywood

Mission: Findelion Watch - Villains
Location: Orlando Florida
Timeline: The Future

When Frederick opened his eyes his body ached. Like waking up on the wrong side of a bottle of Jack. As he tried to look past the frosted glass he realized he was back in the tube The White Woman had kept him in.

Then a flurry of voices spoke as one. “We are The Council of Nexus. Frederick Hollywood, we have brought you here to be judged.”

Lorde had theorized that there would be a Council of Time. He just had no idea who would be in charge. Then the door to the pod opened and the chair he was in began to move slowly out. He was shackled into it. If he had a guess by something with power dampeners. He was naked so they had done something with his gear. To his right was Aryel. He smiled thinking at least she was there with him. Although she looked like he felt.

Again the voices spoke and now Lorde could see an entire auditorium of video screens with faces that looked much like The White Woman’s. “If you are found guilty your passport will be revoked.”

After a short pause Frederick lifted his hand to ask. “Is there some way I can get representation? I Haven’t even been told what I am being charged with. While I understand the law, having temporal law used against me in a court is somewhat new,”

The voices stayed silent for a few more moments. “Adequate council will be provided as well as a representative of the council to read charges.” One of the White Women stepped forward from behind Lorde and Aryel. Then one of them walked forward from a door by the tiers of screens. A podium rose up from the floor in front of the woman in white in front of him.

The woman in white before him spoke in a pleasant but measured voice. “Frederick Hollywood you are being accused of dereliction of duty as an agent of Nexis. How do you plead?”

Lorde took a breath and smiled looking over the entire array of faces. “Not guilty!”

Many of the faces on the view screens began to murmur. Some even began to shout and argue with one another. Again the white woman before him spoke. “Are you at this time ready to defend yourself against this and possible other charges against the Nexus Council?”

The old man couldn’t help it and smile wider as he looked over at Aryel again. They had made a mistake. They had given him the chance to talk. “Yes I am!”

Now some of the voices sounded worried. Still others seemed to be complimentary. His love smiled back at him. It seemed whatever they had done to her to get him here had passed.

The woman before him raised her hand and many of the voices fell silent. She took a breath. “Have you worked to circumvent the cataclysm that will befall Earth?”

“Tirelessly and without hesitation.” While it was no lie, it was acting he had said it like a general speaking to scared soldiers on a battlefield. After taking a deep breath and looking at many of the monitors more for effect than anything else Lorde continued. “I have not only investigated your problem but I have also prepared for the worst in the event I fail or that the problem is somehow beyond me. Still yet I have other things I plan to do to try and insure that dark day either does not come to pass or passes with minimal life lost. If you doubt my words you can test me but you may not like some of those answers. Still yet you may create fixed points for yourselves that I at least will not be able to change.” Again he paused but not for as long and he held up his hand. “I digress, let me explain. One of the things I have done to at least improve your future is to create “Lifeboats,” cities designed to weather the sort of destruction I was shown. Some are above ground but most are far below the Earth. Each of those contain a fairly high population of mutants and special humans. In fact if they have broken free ahead of time then I would dare say that your percentage of said people would be way higher than in the early twenty first century.”

At that point many of the women on the screens began to converse and sometimes broke into arguments. It seemed his cities had so far gone unnoticed and unopened unless they had been destroyed. Again the woman acting as prosecutor or interrogator raised her hand and the voices quieted for the most part. “How do we know what you are saying is true about these buried cities? Can you prove that in some way?”

He looked over at Aryel. Again they had given him an opening one he wasn’t sure he wanted to use or if the love of his life would let him even given what was going on. After all, he had no idea what line they had fed her about him. He decided it would be worth seeing her reaction even if she tried to stop him. He had designed the city's lock system on the theory of quantum entanglement. If he said the key phrase to open the cities they would respond anywhere in the universe almost instantly. The fun part would be that right in front of him where people listen to him from across a multiverse of possible timelines. “Alpha Omega Zero Zero One...”

Aryel’s eyes widened. She had only heard her Lorde use this phrase once before and when he did something terrible happened. Later he had told her it was a code he had come up with as a child based loosely on one of his favorite TV shows.. “I assure you he always tells the truth! There are no exceptions to that! Even when he lies or tricks people!” While she believed wholeheartedly he had something smart in mind she did not want to see if these people could hurt him. She looked back over to her love with a saddened face not knowing for sure if she should have let him continue. In some ways he was a stranger again to her.

Now a fear gripped the elemental woman. What if she had angered him? What if he felt betrayed by what she had chosen to do? Would she be able to live with herself? Just then she could feel it. Someone behind those magic mirrors had been trying to probe her thoughts.

Frederick smiled at her brightly seeing the look of concern wash over his golden goddess’s face. It was simply something he couldn’t abide no matter what. “Ever my champion. Ever the general making the hard decisions. Then he looked back at the monitors. “There was no way I could just say I never lie. Unless you had that on record someplace already it would sound like boasting at best and a lie at worst and I would be no better off.” Besides, he still had more cards to play and more things to say. “I think I know why your Nexus agents never made contact in the past and why you went through such lengths to obtain an update. Perhaps in the future we could use an intercessor like my AI. I have narrowed down the list of suspects and I will warn you I have also come up with some probable causes. For example many mutants have suddenly been taken down. Some of the people that care for them have powers capable of what you fear. Two main line agencies I see might become catalysts for just the dangers you fear. One of them being a past version of your own.. The other would be the world government mainly its military and intelligence arms namely SHIELD. One last worry remains outside of the Law of Time. I could also be someone who could cause something like this sadly just by trying to prevent what you fear.” Again he raised his hand and took a deep breath as he looked around the auditorium of video screens. “I can assure you I will do everything, and I do mean everything in my power to prevent that from happening. I would rather exile myself from this dimension than let something like that happen. Besides, I can think of some great vacation homes in neighboring realms.”

The White Women talked for longer than he had expected. If this had been on Tera he was sure that would have gone a little smoother and only one being he could think of might have still given pause.Finally the woman at the podium nodded and spoke again. “You will be allowed to continue your efforts and at this time the council would like to thank you for the work you have done. There is one more question to be asked. What do you want done with your wife? She can stay here, return with you, or be sent back to her old home.”

Frederick thought about what she said for a moment. Each choice had both good and bad sides to it. Staying in the future seemed like the safest. At least she would be spared from the cataclysm or from some Omega class mutant. Tera was tempting after all she had gained deific powers and so would be very hard to kill. The problem being he hadn’t been back in so long things may have changed drastically and gods of Tera coulda be killed. Lastly if she joined him in trying to stop whatever was coming at least they could face it together. Also she was a competent spell caster and he really would love to have another healer around. There were a multitude of downsides. She could be killed more easily than in the future or Tera. What if they had made her into a spy. Also would she accept what he had become.

Really the answer was simple: He just wanted to know what he was giving up. “If one of you really took me from the past then you should know my answer.” Then he looked over his shoulder at the white woman that had been his representative.

Aryel could see he had figured something out. There was no way of telling if anyone behind the mirrors had also.

The White Woman before them replied. “So you will take responsibility even if she becomes the reason for The Great Cataclysm?”

Aryel saw him look right through the prosecutor. That look she had seen hundreds of times. He wanted to kill her for some reason. Did it mean he was about to leave her?

Lorde nodded. Still smiling. His mind felt like it was on fire and it buzzed loud. “Oh you have my word I will take total responsibility if that happens.”

Aryel looked from Frederick back to the women behind her then to the woman before her. Did they understand him? Now she was terrified. Did they know he had just lied in the way he could? With the truth. I most likely meant he would take responsibility for her but not in the way they meant.

The women seemed to debate the issue. There were few detractors. Either none of them knew what he had done or whoever did didn’t care to share. Soon the prosecutor and judge of the council nodded. “It is done.”

TBC