Ok, here is the partial conclusion to this sequence. I know, it's kinda short, but I knew that y'all would want to read it anyway. I also have another thing to say. This is the second last chapter of Powers That Be. Now then, I'm only gonna say this twice - I want you to e-mail me! I want to know what you think/thought of this chapter. The e-mail address is - shiningstar@oceanfree.net. Please e-mail me! If you don't feel like doing that then go to the website - http://stories.i8.com and leave a message in the guestbook, please, I really want to hear from everyone who's read this story.
Thank you to Sher, who knows why, even if she's never read any these comments. Thank you Tim! You know why, but in case the others out there don't, it's 'cos you're the best! I love you! (Platonic, don't be getting excited on me.) You've edited and helped more then I could have ever had a right to expect on this story and I really want to say thank you for that. Matt, for the most blush worthy e-mail ever last night, Shawn - 'cos you figured it out.
This story isn't true, the characters are all fictional, some are based on celebrities but I don't pay too much attention to detail, such as sexuality, preferences so I don't know if they are gay or straight. The event depicted in this story never took place. If you think they might of then please hit yourself over the head with a piano. If you're too young then you shouldn't be reading this.
My heart pounded in my chest. For the first time in days I felt truly awake and thoughts gushed through my head all at once. The unbearable pain that had been present from the moment I'd seen Justin collapse to the floor had diminished to little more then an echo of its former self, because it no longer felt that Justin was dead. It was simple! All I had to do was turn back time, how hard could it be? I already knew how to do it, and it wasn't as if I didn't have the incentive. I could do it. I would do it. My decision was made - I was going to turn back time.
Baram's warning echoed through my head -"Tom, you are going to do something in the next couple of days that could have unfathomable and far reaching consequences, something which I plead with you not to try." Was this what she'd been talking about?
Joey's panicked sounding voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Tom? Tom!" He shook me.
"I'm ok Joey."
"You scared me there for a second! You were just standing there with a glazed look on your face... never mind, you're ok now, any idea who that's from?" He asked, referring to the video that was playing out its final couple of seconds on the screen.
"Huh?" I asked, still not fully alert to what was going on around me, my head was still buzzing. "Oh, that. I haven't a clue."
Just then JC came into the room drying his hair; he must have just gotten out of a shower. "What's going on? I heard Joey shouting."
I turned to him quickly; I had to cover up before he realised what I was thinking about. "Oh, nothing. I was just in a daze for a second; Joey was just trying to snap me out of it." I shammed, but it was too late, he'd caught my eye and I knew he knew.
He brought the towel down from his hair and the slightly strained look on his face was replaced by a very serious look. "Joey." He said, in a very firm tone of voice. "I need to talk to Tom, alone." He looked over at Joey and Joey didn't even say a word, he just nodded and left.
"Sit down. We need to talk." He instructed.
"About what?"
"You know full well what we need to talk about, sit down." His tone of voice was now so commanding that I sat down without even thinking about it. He sat down beside me. "Tom... you can't do this, you can't even try, please, just forget it."
"I can't." I said. "I've got a way of bringing Justin back and all you want to say is no? How can you?" I yelled.
"I want Justin back too!" He yelled back. "But there's more at stake then that! No one, and I mean no one, has ever managed to turn back time! It's not possible to do it." His voice softened. "I know, you're powerful, it scares me when I realise how much power you've got. But that makes things even worse, because you can have an effect! But all you'll do is mess things up! We can slow down time, but only in a limited area. You're talking about the entire universe! You'll never manage it. You've got to understand that Tom, you'll never be able to do it."
"But I've got to try! You don't understand! I've got to do something to bring him back, I've got to try." I sobbed, covering my face with my hands. "I loved him, I loved him and he died. I'd never even said that I loved him, but I did. I can't just leave him JC, I can't." I don't know how he understood any of what I'd said, but he did.
He pulled me into a hug. "I know, we all know that you loved him Tom. But you've got to let him go."
I pulled away from him, a look of disgust on my face. "I shouldn't of expected you to understand. You don't know what love is. If you did then you wouldn't say what you've said." A look of anguish crossed his face, but I ignored it. I jumped up from the sofa and strode to the doors to the outside. JC threw a shield up, blocking the door off to me.
"You've got to stay. You can't do anything Tom." JC called from behind me.
I looked back coldly at him. "Maybe not, but at least I'll be trying, which is more then you've done Josh." My hands glowed with power and I rammed my fists against his shield, it shattered and behind me I heard a cry of pain. The doors opened in front of me and walked out and turned back to face the house. Lance and Joey were already rushing to JC's side when I leapt into the air and kept going up, determined to put as much distance as possible between them and me.
JC sat up with a groan. Lance concentrated and a green shell surrounded JC, healing him rapidly. "Thanks." Said JC. "Where is he?"
"He's gone. There was nothing that we could have done. I've never seen someone go so fast, and he knew enough to cover his trail."
"I've got to tell the council." Said JC, trying to stand up. Lance pushed him down onto a sofa and kept him there. Joey got up and left, heading towards the kitchen, where JC could see Chris talking, to whom, JC didn't know. Joey closed the door after him, blocking JC's view.
"You're not doing anything magical for a while Josh, I don't know how but he drained you completely, you're going to take days to recover fully. Don't worry, Chris is already talking to Baram in the other room."
"How?" Asked JC but Lance cut him off.
"You think you're the only one that Baram talks to around here? 'Cos you're not." Grinned Lance, risking a little humour. "He's gone to turn back time?"
"Yeah, I couldn't stop him, couldn't make him see that he was going to destroy us all."
Lance's eye's glimmered. "Maybe he's not."
"What do you mean? Of course he is!" JC broke off and started speaking again in a much more sombre voice. "He said I couldn't understand, said I didn't know what real love was."
Lance put a hand on JC's shoulder. "I know you still miss her Josh, we all do, and you know that what he said wasn't true."
"He's the lucky one! At least he knows what happened to Justin, knows where he is now. She... she just disappeared and I never heard from her again, I looked for her. I searched, but I couldn't find her... God I wish I knew where she was..."
"We all do Josh, but now is not the time."
"You're right. We've got to do something about Tom, and what did you mean, maybe he's not going to kill us all?" Asked JC.
"He's angry with you now, and with Baram, and Drayn, and himself. He hates you all, and he loves Justin. Opposite forces like that... with that much power? He could do it." Mused Lance.
"So all Baram did by warning him and by telling me to warn him was give him more power? That's the last thing we want!" Exclaimed JC, who was very confused.
"Is it?" Asked Lance. "He was going to try it anyway..."
JC cut him off excitedly. "So she made sure that he had enough power to do it! Oh man, I sure hope he doesn't screw up! But don't you think she could have arranged things so that I didn't get hurt." JC paused. "Wait... does that mean that she was the one who requested the video for him then?" He asked.
Lance shrugged. "Must have been her, but she didn't mention it to me. But I do know one thing; he's going to have a surprise when he gets to where ever he's going.
The fury still seethed in my veins; by now I'd had a chance to think over the things that had been said, but it hadn't done anything to calm me, instead the anger had been distilled and honed. I thought of Justin and I felt the ache return to my stomach. I'm coming Justin, I'm coming, I thought. By now I was flying over some ocean or other and had left Ireland far back. I spotted a little island, which looked quiet enough. I slowed down and landed gently, it was night here and I wondered how far I'd flown.
"Solas." I muttered, and casting light on the ground in front of me I made way up to the top of the small hill that I'd landed on the side of. I let the light fade gently away, feeling that I needed all my power available if I was going to do this properly.
I sat down on the crest of the hill, cross-legged, and tried to enter the state of calm that I'd first achieved on the lawn when I was learning telekinesis with JC. Every time I felt that I was getting close to it my focus slipped, I concentrated hard for a couple of minutes and then, deciding that I needed to calm down some more before I tried again. I opened my eyes and gasped in shock. Standing in front of me on the ground was a stick of about five foot six inches in height, and was shining in a pool of soft blue light. The Staff of Onanis, I thought. Then, puzzled, I searched my memory for any hint of how I knew that. How? I wondered. "How did I know that?" I said, thinking out loud.
"Because I told you." Said the staff. It had a pleasantly deep male voice. I guess I should have been more shocked then I was but I guess I just couldn't be bothered.
"Hello." I said. "You haven't come to try to stop me have you? Because I should tell you that I'm fairly set on what I'm gonna do here."
"You're not having much luck though, are you?" It said, in an amused tone. "Anyway, I'm not trying to stop you, I'm here to help you. Just hold me in your hand and I'll see what I can do." Something about it told me to trust it and, leaning forward, I took the staff in my right hand, then I held it horizontally in both hands. Its power pulsed through me, tingling in my hands and throbbing in my head.
I closed my eyes again and found this time that I easily slipped into the trance like state where I'd first realised how to control time. Despite the fact that my eyes were closed everything around me came into sharp focus and I knew that if I looked hard enough I could see anything that I wanted to. I twisted around and pushed, gradually everything around me that was moving slowed down and I knew I was doing it. Power streamed out of me into the surrounding land and sea, as well as straight up into the air. It rippled and twisted, changing things as it passed, it flowed along the ground and into the air. I pushed harder and it started going quicker, cascading now. But the effort was becoming painful, I thought about how Baram could have saved Justin, how JC didn't care, how Drayn laughed when Justin died and the pain gave away to more power, the staff was now adding to the flow and I couldn't see the magic, it was going so quickly.
Lance looked around him, apparently through the walls. The five guys were sitting in the sitting room and had been waiting for the words that Lance was about to say. - "It's starting." They got up from the sofa in an odd manner and started doing everything that they'd done already that day in reverse.
Baram was sitting in her chair as head of the council, reviewing some material for an upcoming lecture she was giving a class of seers when she looked up at the waves of magic pouring through the walls. She smiled and put down her pen, only to pick it straight back up again.
I grunted with the strain. I could see that he'd almost done it but things were starting to go funny in some directions no power at all was flowing and in others it was flickering. I thought about how I wouldn't get to see Justin again if this didn't work and then thought of all the things that I would be able to do if this worked, I thought about kissing Justin again, about holding him in his arms, I thought about whispering in Justin's ear - "I love you." All the pain I'd had been feeling turned to a feeling of warmth and kindness and with one more monumental thrust, the last of the magic that I had to offer was used up and I fell backwards onto the sand, unconscious, the staff still in my hands.
After a moment the staff pulled itself out of Tom's hands and floated above him, seeming to contemplate what to do, then, reaching a decision it touched him once, Tom shimmered for a second, power flowing into him from the staff. Then the staff tapped him again and he disappeared. A second later the staff disappeared.
JC pulled himself out of bed and checked the other bad in the room where, if Tom had done things right and JC had been counting properly when he was going backwards, Justin should be sleeping. He was lying down there, but he wasn't asleep. He looked up at JC, his eyes shining and spoke.
"I've never been unkilled before, and I don't recommend it."
Make sure and e-mail me! shiningstar@oceanfree.net. or guestbook on the site - http://stories.i8.com.
Please e-mail me!
Tim.