Mother

Opening the cockpit and out of harms way momentary, I find my “sons” waiting for me, speaking being hard for the man who comes forth he only holds his arms out as I hand him the items, a jewel; containing Lily. A raggedy yellow turtle with green shell plushy; containing Jennifer. And the third, a dagger; containing Ra.

“What about the forth...” he asks in muffles, his tongue being cut out at such a young age, I’ve gone use to his speaking over the years, but I shake my head.

“Mother doesn’t know where that is, he’s coming and I have to defend the ark.”

All my “sons” eyes widen with fear, but in the back of all of our minds we knew he’d come. Resting a hand on my stomach I hate to even think about letting that man take him, take his heir.

Staggering, I have issues standing, already on the run from the Small Hand Clan for weeks now, I’ve only led them back to the ark out of necessity, I don’t know what else to do, I can’t see the flow of time and all I can do now is protect my family.

“Help Mother back into the Gunner.” I tell him as he passes the items to someone else, a brief exchange between the two before he runs back into the darkness, beyond the old battleship from millenniums ago. The Eldridge.

Ra’s instructions were direct, bring four containers back. A Gem of the Ocean, a Toy from the Old World, and a Weapon. The last being; Life.

But they don’t question me as he leads me back to the cockpit of the fifty foot tall Gunner once piloted by Marie Mayflower.

“There you are...” he says, resting my back against the seat and looking over my batterer state. Still in the rags that man left me in, my arms bruised and my lip cut from his strong right clip. I have strands of my hair sticking to my head from the blood still fleshly dripping down my face. I held them off not far from here but they are coming, the ground around us shaking from their multitude of Old World tanks they’ve managed to salvage. All because that bastard wants his heir.

“My body isn’t going to last long, do what you must to activate the particle accelerator she left us. Let it overheat, do not stall it...”

He looks with uncertainty, and I give a slight smile, we knew we’d all be dead sooner or later, lets keep that in our hands.” Nodding in agreement he jumps down and the cockpit door closes as a virtual display shows him running back into the encampment with the others. They’re prepared for death as am I.

My body feels heavy as I stand the Gunner up, a large robot with a metallic face in rust and dull red paint on it’s front. The Reaper of legends according to Ra, but I shake my head, trying to clear it and trying to flush out my eyes from the still dripping blood. Bursting from the hideout onto the desert wasteland I meet the sounds which were echoing in our base. I come face to face with a dust cloud. I don’t need any of the fancy sensors on the Reaper to tell me who’s coming. Isaac.

Dizzy in my own sense, I start laughing, this, this whole situation, I never thought he’d go so far…

One step forward, then another and another until I’m at full sprint in the Reaper. Coming and looming over the dust cloud I make out the many tanks they’ve brought as over the loud speaker from one of them that damning voice chimes, “Opal, we must talk about what’s happening, I can understand you’re under a lot of stress with this burden...”

The tank next to his, which I didn’t miss by no means, I want him to shut it, to piss himself in fear of my rage, “This isn’t a burden, this is my fate!” I yell, grasping that tank and crushing it with ease in the Gunners hand, an explosion erupts shattering the Reapers right hand. And causing reverberations to me, blacking my right arm further, I have no strength in it, it’s dead weight.

My scream echos as a laugh comes from Isaac who has popped his head out of the lead tank, the multiple others are encircling me, waiting for any command. “That old hunk of junk isn’t going to save you, you already lost an arm and most of it’s basic controls, we’ve made sure of that before you escaped with him...”

“He’s not yours to use, he to has his own fate...”

“What fate are you talking about, you talk as if everything that lead here, that lead to impregnating you is up to fate. Why is fate so important?”

A shell fired from behind me as I take the shell to the chest of the Reaper, blowing part of it’s armor off and revealing me from inside, a shard from the glass interior which once displayed the outside sinking it’s self into my left eye and I let out another scream.

“Hold you’re fire, if you kill her we loose the child!”

I must be delirious as I start laughing again, “talking about loosing the child, he’s not even yours, nor is he mine,” In agony I reach my right arm to my eye, grabbing hold of the shard of glass and pulling it out, the pain causes me to see stars in my one good eye, but what unfolds before my sight is far grander, and for the first time I can actually see the flow of time. I see him, Kri, racing down some tall hill, his fist growing to many, many times their own size and punching though a great figment. I don’t know what he’s doing but he’s the answer to this eternal battle.

“This isn’t about fate at all, this is about how we’ll evolve, how we move forward, we’re each stepping stones for those that come after...” I giggle loudly as I slam my good arm down on the ground before Issac’s and he gives another order to fire, blowing my other arm away. Mean while I’m giggling and smiling, “the last container, I know what it is now...its me, my womb holds the future of this world, I’m but a stepping stone, and thanks to you, you’ve giving this world another hope...”

A loud eruption sounds from behind us, behind us where the Eldridge slumbers a whirlwind of sand kicks up, and a beam of light shoots up from the epicenter, I’m no longer going to amuse this pathetic man with his son.

“Never having experience love like I should, yet given this light, this hope of mine to the future.” I dash forward with the Reaper, and they follow, Issac’s ranting drowned out by the roaring from the partial accelerator that will cast us into the future and protected by the Eldridge. Constant tank fire continues as the Reaper holds out as long as he can before the leg gets damaged, and we crash into one side of the Eldrige as it’s slowly revealed from the sand which once covered it over millennium.

The Reaper no longer functioning I’m left trapped in the cockpit, resting a good arm on my tummy and feeling the boy kick, with tears streaming down my face I smile as I see Issac coming closer with his army of tanks which are being vaporized by the beam, or obscured, I am not sure but soon my whole world turns white as I remain in a fetal position, guarding my stomach as best I can, wanting what ever to comes from the future, that this boy...that Kri makes it to that future so that he can change the world as I foresee it.

“Kri, you’ll change the world, as I tried to, as we all tried to only to be mere stepping stones for you. Change your world.”