Until the End, page 52
“You’re kidding,” she said, her voice numb. “You have got to be kidding. You can’t just …” She looked at Skulduggery. “This can’t be how it happens. We had a way out! We had a chance! This was our chance!”
“It still is our chance,” he said. “We don’t need Destrier’s magic to go back in time – we just need the suit.” He took off his hat, started taking off his jacket.
“It won’t fit you,” Valkyrie said. “I’m closer to his height than you are.”
“You’re still too tall,” said Omen, his voice quiet. They looked at him. “I’m the only one it’ll even come close to fitting. It has to be me.”
“Omen, no.”
“We don’t have much choice, do we? And we could stand around arguing about this and wait for more of those Nulls to come running in, or even for Obsidian to just end everything, or I could put the suit on and … and try.”
Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery, who put his hat back on.
“You can’t tell anyone who you are,” he said.
She nodded. “Names are power. Remember that. If anyone knows that Omen Darkly is the one in that—”
“That’s not my name.”
“I’m sorry?”
Omen swallowed. “Auger was going to change his name before he became Obsidian. I didn’t really get it at first, but I do now. I don’t want anything to do with my parents. I took my name to honour them, because I thought it was important to be a Legacy family, but they don’t love me. They never have.”
“So you’re not Omen Darkly any more,” Skulduggery said. “Very well. Have you taken a new name?”
“I … I’ve been thinking about this, and I always liked the name Sebastian. And I wanted to forge my own path, you know? Make my own way. So – Tao. Sebastian Tao.”
Skulduggery nodded, and Valkyrie smiled.
“I like it,” she said.
Sebastian watched three sorcerers sprint up to Obsidian, who didn’t even turn to look at them before they were wiped away. Three more lives lost.
Two more came running into the glow of the streetlights, but Sebastian couldn’t bear to see his brother erase more souls from existence and he started running for Destrier’s laboratory, but stopped before he’d picked up any speed.
There was a moment, and it hung there, and in that moment he was still and everything was still, and the voices he heard were simply voices, abstract sounds that had the potential to mean nothing at all. And then the moment ended, it landed, and the weight of reality came crashing down upon his shoulders as he turned and watched his parents approach Obsidian.
“Auger,” his mother said, “please listen to me. Please look at me.”
“It’s us,” said his father, as Obsidian watched them. “We’re here. Auger, do you know us? Do you recognise us?”
Sebastian couldn’t move. He wanted to lunge forward, push them into the shadows, get them away from the danger. He couldn’t speak. He wanted to shout out, to warn them, to tell them Obsidian wasn’t their son, not any more.
“Sweetheart,” said Emmeline, “I want you to listen to me. Please, just listen to me. You have to stop this.”
“You’re killing people,” Caddock said. “Innocent people. We know you don’t want to hurt anyone; we know this isn’t your fault. But please stop.”
Emmeline was crying now. Sebastian didn’t think he’d ever seen his mother cry. “This is our fault, Auger. We drove you away. We’re so sorry.”
“We love you,” said Caddock. “We failed you.”
“We failed you and Omen. We were selfish, and self-centred, and obsessed with all the wrong things. And we lost you both.”
“We don’t deserve another chance,” Caddock said. “We understand that. From either of you. But you’re our children. We have to try. Auger, please. Let us try.”
“I remember you,” said Obsidian, and wiped Caddock Darkly from existence.
Emmeline screamed and Sebastian screamed and he was on his knees now, his mask absorbing the tears he was shedding. He watched his mother stagger back, both hands covering her mouth, staring at the space where her husband had been a moment ago.
“He felt no pain,” Obsidian said.
Emmeline sobbed again, doubled over and roared, and then straightened and did her best to compose herself. “Please stop,” she said. “Auger, please stop killing people.”
“You won’t feel any pain, either.”
“Please don’t kill Omen.”
Obsidian hesitated.
“Kill me,” said Emmeline. “I’ve lived a long life. But your brother is too good a person, Auger. You know he is. He’s too kind and too decent and too nice – you can’t kill him. Please. Kill me but spare your brother.”
“It’s not death,” Obsidian said. “It’s just the end.”
Emmeline’s head dropped. “I love you both so, so much,” she said, and then Obsidian wiped her away.
He turned his head, looking through the darkness, straight at Sebastian, and his posture changed slightly. “You were the best part of being a Darkly,” he said, and he sounded like his old self, like Auger, and then he straightened up and Sebastian knew his brother was gone.
He got up, and he ran.
The necronaut suit was a pretty good fit, all in all, and Sebastian looked at himself in the mirror and blushed. “I don’t even want to say what I look like.”
“You look grand,” said Valkyrie. “Once you put on the coat and the hat and the mask, you’ll look awesome.”
“I’ll look worse.”
“But at least no one will be able to see your face.”
Sebastian sighed. “How do I find Darquesse?”
“You’ll need to go looking for the Faceless Ones,” said Skulduggery. “If Darquesse is still fighting them, that’s how you’ll find her. You’ll need to track their energy signatures.”
“How do I do that?”
“My blood,” said Valkyrie. “If you can get some of my blood, you’ll be able to get the energy signature you need.”
“I don’t suppose you’d just hand a vial over if I asked?”
“Probably not,” said Valkyrie. “And you can’t ask, either. You can’t ask me anything. We can have no contact. None at all.”
“OK.”
Valkyrie looked around, found a pair of scissors that looked clean. She rolled up her sleeve, pressed the point of the scissors into her forearm and drew it across her skin, wincing as she did so.
“Ow,” she said, and handed the scissors to Sebastian. “My blood’s on that. Keep it safe and, when you’ve made friends with the weirdos, give this to someone who knows what they’re doing.”
Sebastian nodded. He found a clear plastic bag on a table, and slipped the scissors into it.
“Eight months after you get there,” Skulduggery said, “the refugees will start arriving from the Leibniz Universe. They’ll have technology that a Shunter can use to open a portal.”
Sebastian hesitated. “So I’ll just … I’ll wait around for eight months? How long will I be gone?”
Valkyrie glanced at Skulduggery, then looked at Sebastian. “When you find Darquesse, you’ll have to keep her hidden. We can’t know if you’ve succeeded or failed. You get that, right?”
Sebastian paled. “I’ll have to keep her hidden from you the whole time? The whole two years and nine months?”
“I’m afraid so,” Skulduggery said. “And I’d like to give you the option to back out, I really would, but I’m afraid we’re past that point.”
Sebastian swallowed, and nodded.
“You’re going to be gone a long time,” Skulduggery said, “but you can’t get distracted. You can’t involve yourself in anything but this. The mission is all that matters.”
“Don’t get distracted,” Sebastian said. “OK.”
“And don’t interfere, no matter what you see,” said Valkyrie.
“Don’t get distracted and don’t interfere.”
“And even though it’s brand-new,” Skulduggery said, “don’t tell anyone your name. We can’t hear the name Sebastian Tao until tonight. If we hear it, you might hear it, and if you hear it before you take it, you won’t take it, and so your past will change, and if your past changes, your future changes, and this moment might not exist.”
They all looked around. When nothing happened, they nodded to each other.
“Don’t get distracted,” said Sebastian. “Don’t interfere. Don’t tell anyone my name.”
Valkyrie helped him into his coat, then looked him in the eye. “You can do this. We wouldn’t be sending you if we didn’t think you could.”
“You’re sending me because I’m the only one the suit fits.”
“No,” she said. “We’re sending you because we trust you. The big question is, do you trust yourself?”
“I can do it,” Sebastian said, his voice cracking just a little.
The house rattled with thunder that wasn’t thunder and then they poured in from the stairs, the Nulls, their faces warped by madness and rage and ecstasy. Skulduggery used the air to swat the first few away, but the rest of them charged into him, took him down.
“Him!” the Null from earlier screeched, the one who’d killed Destrier. “The one in the mask! He’s going to stop Obsidian!”
Valkyrie blasted them and when they got too close to blast she grabbed them, hit them, swung them into the path of their friends, got them all tangled up. “Omen,” she cried. “Go!”
They got by her, knives in their hands, and Omen spun and ran for the window and he leaped through and Valkyrie glimpsed him falling to the rooftop and then the suit rippled and he was gone.
The Nulls whirled, seething with fury, and Valkyrie threw a chair and they scattered. She broke a Null’s kneecap and punched another’s throat and fried another’s nervous system and broke her hand on another’s jaw. Wincing, hissing, she backed off, and Skulduggery stepped in to finish the fight.
“Dammit,” she snarled. “Ohhh, this bloody hurts.”
Cradling her hand to her chest, she looked round at the Nulls. Some were unconscious. Some were moaning in pain. A few were sobbing.
Skulduggery went to the window, looked out into the darkness. “Omen jumped?”
“And vanished,” Valkyrie said, trying to dampen the pain. “No lights, no flashes, no cool, swirly tunnel. He just disappeared. But at least we know it works. I mean, the time-travelling part. He arrives in the past and talks to me and then … ah, dammit.” She picked up the plastic bag containing the scissors with her good hand. “He left without my blood.”
“I’m sure he’ll manage.”
She dropped the bag on the table. “Do you think he’ll find her?”
Skulduggery shrugged. “He’s had a little over two and a half years.”
Valkyrie managed to reduce her pain to a manageable level, and was grateful for it. “Two and a half years to search for one person in an infinite number of alternate universes isn’t a whole lot of time.”
“No, it isn’t. I suppose we just have to hope. And wait.”
“Waiting sucks. How long do we have to wait for?”
More footsteps thundered up the stairs and Sebastian ran in. They stared at him. He stared at them.
“Am I gone?” he asked.
“You’re gone,” said Skulduggery.
Sebastian flung off his hat and his hands went to the buckles on the mask. “Help me with this. Help me get it off. Oh, God, help me get it off.”
Valkyrie stayed back, careful of her injury, while Skulduggery rushed forward, batted Sebastian’s hands out of the way and went to work.
“Did you find her?” he asked, undoing the first buckle.
“I found her,” said Sebastian. “I brought her back. I told her what we needed her for.”
“And?”
The last buckle opened and Sebastian grabbed the mask by the beak and ripped it off his head, hurled it into the corner. He roared, scratching at his hair, at his face, rubbing his nose, rubbing his eyes.
“Oh my God!” he cried. “Oh, thank you! Thank you! I hate this stupid suit! I hate it! Never want to see it again!”
He dropped his coat, pulled off his gloves, went back to scratching his face, leaving long red marks on his waxy, sun-deprived skin. He needed a haircut and he needed a shave and he needed some pimple cream, and he was suddenly two years older than he’d been a few minutes ago. He also looked like he’d been crying. He started kicking off his boots.
“Sebastian,” said Valkyrie, “where is Darquesse?”
He turned to them. “I don’t know. We’ve been through an awful lot. Like, an awful, awful lot.” Sebastian’s voice had changed, too. It was deeper. “I found her and she was a giant, and she was fighting the Faceless Ones. She came back with me and I asked her to help us, but she didn’t know if she wanted to. Then she sent out all these other aspects and it got really confusing.”
“Other aspects?”
“Other Darquesses. She’s been sending them all over the universe, as part of her research into whether or not she’ll help.”
“How many?”
“I actually don’t know,” said Sebastian. “I’m thinking trillions.”
Valkyrie blinked. “She can do that?”
“Yep. And each Darquesse is as powerful as she is. I don’t know how it works. She thought that’d be enough, you know, to make a decision, but then she said she needed to experience what it was like to be a person. She needed to have her own childhood.”
“And what does that mean?” Valkyrie asked.
“She, uh, she got pregnant – immaculate conception, don’t worry – and she gave birth … to herself. And I raised her.”
“You what?”
He smiled, and Valkyrie saw that same uncertain boy who had just jumped out of the window. “I raised her,” he said. “She aged, you know, quickly, and she’s, I’d say, your age now. She needed to do it. Needed to form her own opinion on whether we’re worth saving.”
Valkyrie looked at him, and nodded. “Seems fair.”
“Are my clothes still in the bedroom?”
“Yeah, of course. Hey, Sebastian – well done. No matter what happens – you did it.”
“Ah, it was nothing much,” he responded, blushing again. Halfway to the bedroom, he stopped, and turned. “And I think I’ve changed my mind. About the name thing. My parents … they were flawed, and mean, and selfish – but I think, if we’re all going to die, I think I want to be a Darkly again.”
“So back to Omen?”
“If that won’t be too confusing for anyone.”
“You’ve been Sebastian Tao for two years,” said Skulduggery. “For us, it’s been ten minutes.”
Omen smiled sadly, then disappeared into the bedroom.
“If Darquesse is going to help us,” Valkyrie said to Skulduggery, “she’s cutting it fine.”
“A flair for the dramatic is a requirement for saving the world – you know that.”
“So you think she’ll do it?”
Instead of answering, he went over to a Null who was clambering awkwardly to his feet and knocked him out with a single rap on the chin. As he turned back, he passed the apartment door, and froze. Valkyrie didn’t have to ask. She knew.
Obsidian was coming up the stairs.
Omen emerged from the bedroom. His jeans were a little too short – they stopped at his ankles. “I’m lucky that necronaut suit was stretchy,” he said, managing a smile.
One of the injured Nulls, she’d found the fallen gun as she lay there on the floor, and she screamed something stupid and pulled the trigger and three bullets burrowed into Omen’s torso. He jerked back, went crashing against a table. Bits of machinery clattered. Valkyrie stomped on the woman’s wrist before she could fire again, her ears ringing, not even hearing the snap of bone. Skulduggery darted over, caught Omen in his arms as he fell.
Obsidian walked into the apartment.
He waved his hand gently and the Nulls went away, wiped from the universe.
“Roof,” said Skulduggery.
Valkyrie released a handful of black lightning that turned the ceiling to dust, and they flew upwards.
Roarhaven was gone. The Earth was gone. Around them was only emptiness. Nothingness. Valkyrie’s eyes hurt and her brain screamed when she glimpsed that nothingness so she kept looking at Skulduggery as he laid Omen on the roof and straightened as Obsidian stepped out of thin air ahead of them.
Valkyrie released another ball of energy that hovered over her right shoulder, casting what remained of the universe in a white, crackling light. She was crying, she realised. She was crying and she couldn’t comprehend what was going on around her. She felt her mind teeter on the edge of sanity.
Obsidian looked at Omen, and Skulduggery took Valkyrie’s good hand and squeezed it. She focused on that pressure. That pressure was one of the last things left in this reality.
“Don’t let go,” she said.
“I won’t,” he said.
Omen coughed blood, cried out, and Obsidian eased his pain by wiping him from existence.
That was it. It was over now. Obsidian had erased the last thing that made him human.
“Interesting,” said Darquesse.
Valkyrie snapped her head towards her, her eyes locking on to the nothingness that lay over Darquesse’s shoulder, and her thoughts were cut down the middle, and then Darquesse was putting her hand on Valkyrie’s forehead and her mind came back and Valkyrie gasped.
“Not yet,” said Darquesse.
Valkyrie’s legs went and Skulduggery held her up, and they watched Darquesse approach Obsidian.
“You are interesting,” she said. “I was brought here to stop you, but I don’t know if I can. I’m … plugged in. You know? I’ve visited every corner of the universe. I’ve seen what makes up life, and what makes up matter, and what makes up the things between and beyond. I’ve seen everything. I am everything. But you … you’re nothing. And I don’t know if everything can beat nothing. I don’t even know if I want to.” She put her hand on Obsidian’s cheek. “You’re beautiful.”
“Help us,” said Valkyrie.
