Parallels

call a country. Not long after that, the rumors started. Aliens. Then the chance came for people to come to this world and carve out a new life.'

'Another war?'

'I think it all depended on how you looked at it. Some people saw it as exploring a new land. Maybe they didn't have much back home, maybe they lost everything in the war. I'd say the bulk of the people who came over were pretty much desperate. Of course, they were promised all types of riches and the start of a brand new life.'

'And you?'

'I've always been a soldier, Trevor. I guess I fell for the idea that we'd come over here and carve out a kingdom for ourselves. That's what you-I mean, our Trevor-promised. He had a way of making your blood boil; to make you want to follow him anywhere.'

Yes, Trevor remembered Five Armies and a hundred battles since. That's why the Old Man likes me so much.

She continued, 'It was billed back home that the Chaktaw here were a threat to mankind, and if we didn't wipe them out they would someday wipe us out. I guess I don't believe it any more but that hasn't mattered in a long time. It's been survive or die for years now.'

She stopped, perhaps overcome with guilt or regret or just exhaustion.

Trevor said, 'So whatever is going on, someone has used each of these universes to give these different civilizations a chance to fight for their lives. A laboratory experiment? An arena?'

'I don't know, Trevor. I'm sorry I ever came here. I'm sorry I brought you here.'

'Me too,' he said but the aches, pains, and fatigue in his bones kept the shot from carrying too harsh a tone; he did not have the energy for shouting anymore today.

Trevor rose to his feet, grabbed his tightly wound bed roll, and moved to the other office, saying, 'We need to get some sleep.'

'The motion sensors are in place,' she referred to the small boxes placed in the hallway earlier. 'If anything heads toward these rooms the sensors will wake us up.'

'Okay. Good. We move out at first light.'

They slept in separate rooms.

– With howls, shrieks, and various moans drifting across the city, Trevor struggled to fall asleep. Worse, only minutes after falling asleep, he found himself pulled awake, his mind conscious of a soft sound coming from nearby.

His eyes blinked open and he lay still, listening. What was that sound? Was some strange snake slithering toward his sleeping bag?

Wait, no, could it be…did Nina snore?

No…not a snake…not a snore.

Trevor slipped from his bed roll and moved as stealthily as if he sneaked in on a Devilbat nest. He came to the open door separating their rooms and peered into hers. The light of a Chem Lantern cast the office in a soft glow. He saw Nina lying in her sleeping bag facing a wall.

The sound that had caught his ear came from her. The sound of her crying, despite struggling to keep the noise to herself.

He stood and watched this woman who had, at first, enthralled him, then seduced him, then enraged him. Among the mysteries of this parallel Earth, Major Nina Forest seemed the biggest enigma. Very much like the woman he knew back home but different. In those differences he had also discovered secrets about himself, ones he wished remained buried.

'Yes, I'm human. Just like you in every way.'

'I don’t want to be all alone. Not again. I couldn’t stand that again. I’ll do whatever you want, just please don’t leave me alone.'

Another sob. Another muffled heave.

He remembered her after the failed assault on the Duass city. The way she had cringed in the face of his anger. The way she had cowered.

Of course.

He walked across the chamber to her sleeping bag. Her breath halted as she heard his approach but she did not turn.

Trevor lay down and then rolled in behind her. The two wore their battle suits although both had removed some of the padded armor so as to make sleeping more comfortable.

He felt her shiver as his body warmth mixed with hers, yet she did not say a word. He slipped his arm over her shoulders and squeezed gently. She wiggled closer and sighed.

'I…I didn’t mean to wake you,' a sniff punctuated her whisper.

'You didn’t love the Trevor of your world. You never did.'

She protested weakly, 'Yes I — sniff — yes I did.'

He spoke in an almost fatherly voice with a tone he had not used in a long time. A tone of compassion. 'Don’t lie, Nina. Don’t lie to yourself. You and I both know the truth. I can see it now. I can see it clearly. For your sake, it’s time you see the truth, too.'

'I don’t…I just…I’m afraid. That’s all, I’m afraid.'

'You grew up shy and lonely, an outcast,' he told her in much the same manner he had once told the same story to his Nina in the midst of a raging thunderstorm. 'You didn’t know why, but you felt different from everyone else.'

'How…how do you know that? How..?'

'Because the woman I loved…my Nina…she had the same beginning. She grew up the same way. You two are the same in many ways but now I realize why you are also different.'

'Different?'

'Yes. Do you want to know? Do you want to see? Are you brave enough to see?'

He gave her a nice hug to help her find that bravery and continued, 'The more I became like the Trevor you knew, the more you feared me. I could see it. At Erie Coast…'

'I deserved to be yelled at.'

'No, no,' he stroked her hair. 'That’s wrong. I screwed up, Nina. My plan was a long shot. The type of long shots I always take. You were a ruse to draw their main forces away from the center of town. When they withdrew to the fortress, there was nothing you could do. If I had been of my right mind I would have known that. Instead, I refused to take responsibility for my mistakes. So I blamed you. I lashed out at you. I’m sorry.'

'Don’t be sorry, you wouldn’t have been acting that way if I didn’t trick you into it.'

'There you go again, apologizing for me. I’ll bet you apologized for your Trevor all the time. But he still bullied you. He probably hit you once in a while, didn’t he? But more than that, he messed with your mind, Nina. Knocked you down and kept you there.'

'He was a great man. Great men are different than the rest of us. Look at everything you’ve accomplished. Sometimes great men just do things different. They’re allowed.'

'No. Your Trevor was not a great man, Nina. He was a brute. A vile man. I say that because there’s a big part of him in my belly and it don’t sit too well with me.'

'You’re different. You…I couldn’t change you. In the end, you didn’t become him. Just like me and your Nina. We look the same, but we’re completely different.'

'That’s where you’re wrong. You are the same. The same genes, the same body, the same mind. I’ll bet you had the same childhood: good parents who tried to help you get over the feeling of being an outcast. But with each year you felt yourself different from the other kids. Even then, you were thinking like a warrior. Getting ready for the coming fight.'

'How do you know all that?'

'Because that’s what my Nina was like. But then, at some point, things changed and the two of you ended up different.'

She swallowed hard and wanted to know, 'What happened?'

He found it ironic that he was telling her the truths of her life. Perhaps sometimes it takes an outsider to see the larger picture. The way Lori Brewer or Dante or even Knox or Jon kept his life in perspective back home. A