The Hero's Conundrum/Chapter 6

Sammael? How or why is he here?

He wasn’t around when they originally found me, now I have more questions than answers.

“How can you be here” I asked him

“I’m sorry Marduk but there is no time for answers, don’t go to the camp, if they see you they’ll get confused and they may kill you, they may kill both of you.

“But. . .”

“Wait, just listen. Don’t worry you’ll find the truth soon, right now focus on finding more information about Bansao, I don’t know, maybe you’ll take my advice and join him. I need to go now, but don’t follow me, we’ll meet again I promise and next time I will have some answers. Oh and remember this, time is a fragile thing, thread carefully”

Then he left. Everything is so confusing I don’t know what the hell is happening and the person that may have the answers is walking away. I followed Bansao closely, scouting his camps and searching for the clone source. I could kill him but I don’t know what repercussions there’ll be if I alter the course of time, so I kept following him for years but there was no clone supply to be found. I never even saw how he comes back from the dead.

That day I followed him, I ended up at one of our camps at the exact moment where Bansao killed the elder. I can finally see what happened to me that day, then it happened, Bansao shot the elder, should I do something? No, I can’t mess with time I must let things run its natural course, I watched as he killed that woman again, then he grabbed the kid and my men charged, my heart started beating hard and fast, then all of a sudden time slowed down around me, almost stopping. What is this? I can move at normal speed but everyone else was moving slow. Bansao men are about to kill my men, but my other self is not doing anything. I must act so I went there as fast as I could, killed all Bansao men, before they could shoot, and then I hid again. That means, that it was not the other me who did it, it was me just now. Bansao then looked at the other me scared and shot him then he ran away.

Two men went following Bansao, I wanted to go down there to see where Bansao shot me, but I had to wait until my men left so I don’t confuse them. The two men that went to follow Bansao came back and said that Bansao men were coming back. After everyone left, I went to see my body, I don’t understand, my other self was shot in the head, he is dead. How can that be?

I hope Sammael brings answers soon because this is an impossible paradox, if he is my past and he is dead I can’t be alive now. If I keep thinking like this, my head will explode. I won’t leave this body here, so I buried it, this must be the most bizarre thing I have ever done. I stayed there for hours, I need to see if I came back to life. It went dark, then I heard a noise, if it is Bansao I will kill him. I altered time and it was the thing that was supposed to happen. I believe that there is no way to alter the course of time. Whatever happens must happen no matter what I do, otherwise it would create a paradox. The noise was Bansao I saw him walking towards the way my people went so I ran to him and he started running too.

He is fast, even faster than me, I lost him and suddenly he grabbed me by the neck and said.

“I have been waiting for this moment.”

I’m struggling for air, he is too strong. Then he dropped me to the ground and as I try and catch my breath he said,

“I just want to talk, that’s all I want, let me finish and if you want to kill me after, I won’t stop you”.

I looked at him and had no option but to agree, it was a win/win scenario, I have too many questions, but he told me that will only answer one. I let him talk,

“Listen to me, stop this madness and join me, you can’t beat me I will always come back and you know it. I know this sounds cliché, but we are both strong and together we can end this. If you continue your agenda, to try and get rid of me, it will only bring you misery. I’m begging you, please stop, it won’t end well, it won’t end at all.”

Is the first time I have seen him this close for so long and he reminds me of someone. That’s exactly what Sammael said, but I could never join him, he killed most my people in order to rule all and I won’t have it. He continues talking,

“I need you and I can help you grow stronger, reach the limit of your abilities and we will have peace, I promise. This day . . . this moment is crucial. Now is your turn for a question, here is my gun, ask me whatever you want I will answer you honestly”

I took his gun and pointed at him, I asked him

“Where is your clone source or supply?” He laughed and said, “There is no source or supply I don’t even know how I keep coming back. But I do know that the key to end this is for you to join me. I know you love your people so much, but believe me, the way you are running things. . .you’ll be betrayed sooner or later.

Well what will it be?”

I came closer to him, pointing the gun at his head, and told him, “You know nothing” then pulled the trigger. I killed him, again, but as soon as I did, hundreds of his masked men started coming out of hiding, my heart stopped but they walked to the corpse and pick him up. They walked by me as if I wasn’t there, I asked them what they were going to do with the body and that I wanted to see how he comes back to life. One of them came to me and said,

“That one is not coming back to life” then took off his mask, he was Bansao. How the hell he came back? Then he said, “I really hoped we were ending this today. Listen to me well, a time will come when you’ll want to join me, but you won’t be able to, then you’ll have to make the most difficult decision in your life and it will break your heart. Trust me.”