I step out of the void and approach Frey cautiously. He’s sitting at the console, just like Lok had before. His fingers fly through the various configurations that change every few seconds, but he’s solving the puzzles, which means he has been taken over by a Dracken. I stop just behind his chair. My breaths are coming out slowly as my energy is being mainly used by my other-half.
“Frey,” I say, my voice almost as soft as a whisper.
He turns and recognition shows on his face, but it’s short lived. He removes his blade, knocks me to the ground, and holds the weapon high above his head.
“You can’t stop us, Max,” the Dracken says using Frey’s voice.
“Frey, I know you’re there. You’re stronger than they are. Fight back.”
“It’s too late, Max. Frey doesn’t exist anymore.”
“You’re wrong. I saw the recognition in his eyes when he saw me just a moment ago,” I say, getting weaker by the moment.
Now I understand why it’s so hard to loop back in time. You’re not as strong or as in control. I’ve made myself very vulnerable and time is running out.
“Max?” Frey says.
I smile at him. “Fight them.”
He cringes as the conflict inside erupts. His hand holding his blade wavers, then firms up.
“He’s losing, Max,” the Dracken says, almost with a laugh.
“No!” I shout with all my effort. “Frey, listen to me. You have to win. You’ll be dead in a few of seconds. Please, you have to win.”
The blade comes down, but falls through the opening in the rails around the walkway. Frey screams as his mind is torn apart. I feel myself slipping away. Time is catching up. Frey gets to his feet, grabbing the sides of his head, then stumbles towards the lift and collapses. I fade as the void pulls me back to actual time. I find myself standing behind the security gate on the seventh floor once again, my suit still covering my entire body. I quickly loop back to the twelfth floor and kneel next to Frey who is currently moaning.
“Frey,” I say, cautiously reaching out towards him as my suit covering retracts from my hands.
His eyes flicker open and relief floods his face. He reaches for me and I hold him to me.
“I thought you died,” he says. “You were there and then not.”
“I time looped backwards.”
He raises his head so our eyes meet. “I told you I didn’t recommend you doing that.”
“I second that,” I say, standing and helping Frey to his feet. “We need to destroy what we can. The Patrician are on their way now.”
I go back to the main console, attach a couple of detonators, take Frey’s hand, and loop us to the floor above just as the explosives go off. I instruct Frey to take off the suit, which he does while I secure detonators to the imagers. He puts his other clothes back on. I can’t strip down since I have nothing else to wear at the moment. I’ll destroy my suit later, but I need to take care of the machine used to create them.
Frey and I go into the clean room where the suits are stored. I take the two from my pocket, then Frey’s, and loop myself behind the plate glass window separating the machine from everything else.
I drop the suits and the necklace onto the conveyor belt, take the remaining detonators, and stick them to various points along the machine. I’m not sure if the impeding fire will destroy the suits since nothing else has, but at least it’ll bury them. I set the timers for one minute, turn, and am about to loop back when I see him.
Garrett’s arrow pierces Frey’s chest. I scream, but no one can hear me. Garrett looks up at me after relishing his kill. His hand has been completely restored, but without the wristband. I step back, plastering myself against the machine.
“You won’t win,” I say, even though he can’t hear me.
The blast is bright, almost blinding. I feel my body crash through the glass as it shatters, finally coming to a rest by the damaged imagers. My ears are ringing and my vision is blurry, but I’m alive. The suit retracts again. I never instructed it to protect me against the blast, but it did anyway. I look up and Garrett is standing over me, grinning ear to ear.
“We’re the Patrician. We always win,” he says.
He grabs me by the throat, brings me to my feet, and we loop. He throws me hard onto the metal floor when we reach Patrician Nine. I bang my head and the world spins. I start to feel as if I’m going to be sick when Garrett picks me up again and we exit the hallway into a massive observation room. I can see the ruined landscape of the Dead Zone clear as day. Parts of Tarsus and the Outer Limits are only slightly visible.
Garrett shoves me onto a couch, goes over to a communicator, and presses a button. “Nuke it,” he says.
I stand and get close to the glass. Missiles fly towards the planet, obliterating it in a matter of seconds. A second wave is sent, this one shattering the world into tiny pieces. Just behind the shards is a smaller planet. Probably Icarian. It too is destroyed, blown to dust. I retreat back to the couch and sink down.
“How did I fail?” I ask myself.
“You didn’t fail, Max,” Garrett says, sitting next to me. “You did exactly what you were supposed to.”
I look over at him since I had been transfixed on the devastation. “How?”
He reaches into his quiver and pulls out the screwdriver. “All Patrician tools have trackers in them. Did you think they would actually let me die? They looped me a few seconds before the explosions
