Prime Identity

by Robert Schmitt

  “Are you kidding me?”

  My eyes were drawn to Blue-Jumpsuit, who had pushed himself onto his elbows and was also staring at my midsection. It seemed he, too, had figured out who had caused that last blast.

  I was knocked to the ground by Amber, who had apparently shielded herself from the wave of distorted spacetime. I snapped my head up to her as I tried to fight against the humming that was growing deafening again. I had to stay in control, now more than ever. I couldn’t... Not again.

  I staggered to my feet, my eyes on Amanda. I couldn’t fight her. And it was too dangerous to stay where she could control me. I had to leave. I pushed myself off the ground and twisted around toward the entrance to the warehouse. I darted forward through the air, numb rage blossoming in my mind. I had seconds before I was gone again.

  “No!” Blue-Jumpsuit shouted, grabbing Red-Cloak by the arm even as he held out his other hand and a bright red energy shot toward me.

  I rolled to the side to avoid being hit by the energy. But I couldn’t think. Pain stabbed at my temple. The static in my mind was unbearable. I slipped to the ground, unable to keep a field around me.

  “What are you doing?” Blue-Jumpsuit shouted again. I felt myself being grabbed by the shoulder, though the fire burning through my skull was blinding my vision too much for me to see anything well. “She was trying to get away from the mind smith!”

  “It’s okay,” someone nearby said. “We have her now.”

  “No!” His voice was hysterical. “You don’t get it!”

  I opened my eyes, my mind clear again despite the static that filled it. I turned to look up at the bruiser, who had been the unfortunate one to drag me to my feet, and who still gripped me tightly by the shoulder. I couldn’t stop from shaking as the rage overcame me. As I stared up at him, my upper lip curled into a snarl.

  I twisted around and aimed a punch into his gut. To his credit, he almost managed to block the blow with his arm. He was stronger than I thought he would be. Likely, he was on the upper limit of strength as far as bruisers were concerned. As it turned out, that wasn’t strong enough.

  His eyes bulged out as I used a field to power my fist through his extended arm and the sound of snapping bone filled the air. He looked to be in shock as I aimed another fist at his chin, which lifted him an inch off the ground as it connected. He fell backwards, his eyes fluttering shut. I turned to the others as he fell to the floor with a thud that shook the ground.

  With the mattermancer, the bruiser, and the shrieking woman incapacitated, that left only Blue-Jumpsuit, the agile, and Red-Cloak left. My eyes slid past them as I walked by, not even glancing over as the woman tried in vain to land a punch on me. I didn’t bother to buffet her back. I didn’t even dodge her blows. Instead, I crafted a field a few inches thick around my skin of negatively curved spacetime thousands of times stronger than earth’s gravity. Every blow she aimed at me stopped an inch away from my skin, repelled by the curvature of the spacetime there. I heard her shout out in frustration as her barrage of blows rained down on me without any of them landing, but I didn’t even bother to look toward her. She could do nothing to me.

  Instead, I focused my attention on keeping the area around Amanda clear of spacetime distortions. Amber was trying, once again, to reach her with her bending. I saw her frustration and fear as she met my gaze, her eyes still purple from her effort to break through my field to get to Amanda. I gave her a light smirk, and she blanched.

  As Red-Cloak summoned more energy to hurl at me, I warped a shell of compressed spacetime around him to trap him in an invisible bubble of almost collapsed spacetime. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him stretch his open hand toward me, then saw a flash of red as the space between his fingers glowed with the sparking energy he could craft. I kept walking by, not even sparing him a half-interested glance when he released the energy in an arc toward me. The energy, on encountering the barrier of curved spacetime, spread out in a solid dome around him and engulfed him in an opalescent sphere of nearly red light before it shrank back in on itself. He likely screamed out in agony, but I couldn’t hear it. The barrier of curved spacetime dampened sound as well. But, as I dropped the spacetime back to its normal curvature, he lay sprawled out on the floor, moaning softly as traces of smoke curled up from his body. Blue-Jumpsuit, for what it was worth, seemed to understand the futility of trying to fight. Good. I had better things to do than to beat some defenseless arbiter into a bloodied pulp because he didn’t know how to choose his battles.

  “Jake!” Amber pleaded, even as I lifted myself off the ground and soared over to where she stood over the prone form of Jake still asleep on the ground. “You can fight this! Come on! Snap out of it!”

  I ignored her and kept my eyes fixed on him. This had to end. Now. I knew what I had to do. I raised a hand to act, to kill, and to destroy. And, out of that destruction, I would create a better world. A world where primes took their proper place, not as servants or slaves, but as masters. We alone possessed power enough to make ourselves equals to God. We could take that power for ourselves. It was our birthright. All it would cost was one worthless human’s life.

  Amber, who had to know what I was doing, didn’t try to stop me. A voice in my head warned me to watch her as her eyes darted to something behind me and they glowed a faint violet as I felt her bending the spacetime there. But, whatever it was she had done, it couldn’t stop me. Besides, the voice of warning was so much quieter than the rage screaming at me to end all of this, here and now. I gripped the spacetime around Jake and began to squeeze.

  A gunshot rang out, drawing my attention away from the sleeping Jake curled up on the ground. As I twisted around, I watched Nicole lower the pistol in her hand to her side. She wasn’t looking at me, though. I followed her gaze and was shocked to see she had shot Amanda through the head. I blinked, and the haze of my thoughts grew lighter as realization set in.

  “I hate mind smiths,” she spat, throwing the pistol aside.

  27

  WE GAVE AS CLOSE TO a truthful explanation as we could to the arbiter team that had arrived just when my mind was hijacked, and thankfully it seemed they believed our story. As we gave our account, I noted that the mind smith frowned every time we omitted a detail, though he never said anything to the rest of his team. In an unguarded moment, I let my thoughts stray to the fact Nicole and I needed to get back to our timeline, and I saw the shock written on his face as he met my gaze. I started to sweat, worried about what might happen if they started asking too-specific questions.

  Whether or not I had been under the control of Amanda, it seemed the team was less than willing to let me off without taking me in for more questioning. Between Amber and me, we only had one piece of registration. I had used my powers without being registered, which amounted to a misdemeanor at the very least, given that they were over a Class C rank. In fact, given the power class I had demonstrated, a misdemeanor would be the least of my worries if the arbiters wanted to be nasty about it, which apparently, they did. The laws around primes weren’t draconic enough that I could get in trouble for using my powers in a life-threatening emergency, registered or not, but I knew it was well within their rights to take me in anyway, under the pretense of asking more questions. If it came to that, I knew there would be holes in my story that wouldn’t stand up to that caliber of scrutiny. That, combined with the destructive potential I had put on display, would almost certainly mean I was facing felony charges in my immediate future.

  Of all people, it was the mind smith that got us out of trouble. Just as the energy caster was about to slap a power-nullifying clamp on me, he stepped forward and vouched for the fact that all my actions against them had been done while I was under Amanda’s control. The energy caster seemed indignant at the thought of letting me go without so much as a slap on the wrists, but as he looked at the mind smith, he seemed to come around. I gave a silent prayer of thanks as the mind smith turned back to me, and judging by the mirrored look of rel
ief on his face, I thought I understood what had driven him to stand up for me.

  He had overheard my thoughts, and he knew that Nicole and my presence would eventually only be explained through time travel. The knowledge alone that time travel was possible would change the course of human history if it ever got out. It was too dangerous a secret to trust to anyone, least of all a government program, not even the likes of the elite arbiters.

  They took Jake to the hospital to recover. There was still the possibility Amanda had left impressions in his subconscious, so we had to make sure he was in a safe place when he woke up. Though, given how long he had been asleep, it didn’t seem like that would be happening any time soon.

  My parents met us at the hospital. My heart felt like it was going to rip in half when my mom swept the three of us into a hug, tears filling her eyes. From our discussion on the way to the hospital, the three of us had decided to leave Nicole there overnight to wait for Jake to wake up. We figured it would be less damning to our already damaged timeline for my past-self to meet Nicole, rather than my future wife. However, that left Amber and me needing to find a place to stay for the night. Luckily, my parents offered to let us stay with them until Jake woke up.

  That evening, sitting around my old dinner table and talking with my parents again, I had to fight back tears. I wanted so badly to be able to tell them who I was and what had happened to me over the years in their absence. But the words wouldn’t come. No matter how much I wanted to, I just couldn’t bring myself to say anything that could jeopardize the fleeting time I had with them. Instead, we spent the evening laughing and joking about trivial nothings. Maybe that would be enough.

  “Jake?”

  Amber closed the sliding glass door behind her and paced out to sit next to me on the bench on my parent’s back patio only half an hour after dinner. I looked her way to see her gaze was out on the yard, where dozens of fireflies floated through the cooling air of the summer evening, their glowing bodies tracing ephemeral streaks of green and yellow through the darkness around us.

  “Los Angeles doesn’t have fireflies,” I said, watching as she took in the light show in front of us with a gentle smile on her lips. “You said many times it was your favorite part about living in Chicago. You never seemed to get tired of just sitting on the back porch and watching the fireflies in the early evening.”

  “Jake?” She put her hand on my arm. “What’s wrong?”

  “I...” I squeezed my eyes shut in a vain attempt at stopping the tears welling up inside me. “I just can’t believe it. We saved them.”

  “What?” I heard the wooden bench creak as she turned fully to me. “Who did we save?”

  “My parents,” I whispered. “In my timeline, they died in an explosion from the rogue attack we stopped today. Probably from that rogue that you took out.”

  Amber’s voice was hoarse. “Jake, why didn’t you tell me we were trying to save your parents too?”

  “I dunno.” I shrugged as I met her gaze. “A part of me, I guess, was scared.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If my parents don’t die, how is that going to change me?” I grimaced. “What if, because they don’t die, now I’ll be such a different person that you never fall in love with me? Are our children going to be the same? Are...”

  “Hey.” She put her hand on my chin and pulled my gaze up to look at her steel-blue eyes.

  Looking at her, it came back to me that her eyes were the first thing I had noticed about her when we first met. For weeks, they had haunted my dreams. They still left me breathless in those moments when I forgot that they now belonged to me and I caught sight of them in the mirror.

  “We don’t have to worry about any of that.” She smiled, and I saw a tear run down her cheek. “Don’t you get it yet, Jake? It doesn’t matter if we can change the past, or the future, or whatever. When you came here, you made a choice, and you acted. And because you acted, your past-self is still alive. Maybe that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be, but you still had to make that choice. Without you acting, none of that would have ever happened.

  “And besides,” she whispered, looking at me like she could see through me. “You don’t have to worry about me falling in love with you.”

  The breath was stolen from my lungs as she leaned forward and kissed me. It had been such a long time since I had felt the soft feel of her lips on mine. I closed my eyes, lost to the moment for much longer than I should have been.

  “Wow,” I whispered as our lips parted a minute later. “Amber, that was...”

  “I know, I know,” she growled. “You’re twenty-four years older than me. I shouldn’t have done that. It’s just... I know it sounds crazy, but I’m in love with you.”

  “You haven’t even met me yet, though. I’m not the person you fall in love with. He’s lying in a hospital bed miles away. You aren’t going to meet him for another few years.”

  “You’re wrong.” She shook her head. “You’re the same person. Time doesn’t change people that much. I’m in love with you. Please, just... just let me have this, okay?”

  “We really, really have a weird relationship, don’t we?”

  “Yeah, we do.” She winced. “But is it wrong that I kinda like it?”

  “I do too,” I admitted.

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  “I love you too.”

  Later that night, after tossing and turning for hours, I pulled away the sheets that had tangled around me and abandoned any attempt at sleep. I decided I might get a glass of water instead. I left my old room, careful to sneak past Amber, who was snoring softly on the bed as I closed the door with a light click.

  I padded down the carpeted stairs, trying not to wake anyone as I made my way into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water from the sink.

  The light to the kitchen clicked on as I gulped down my water, and I twisted around to see my mother staring at me.

  “Oh.” I smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I was just getting some water.”

  “You didn’t wake me.” She leaned against the counter and furrowed her brow as she studied me carefully. “Couldn’t sleep?”

  “No.” I gave what I hoped was an innocent smile as she continued to stare.

  “You never could sleep when you were nervous.”

  “Umm...” I blinked, setting the glass of water onto the counter next to me. “What are you talking about?”

  “It’s okay.” She smiled and gestured for me to follow her out of the kitchen. “Did you think you could fool me? I’m your mother. I recognized you right away. You think I wouldn’t recognize my locket hanging around your neck?”

  “What?” I tilted my head to the side, my pulse thudding in my ears as I followed her into the living room. My fingers, moving on a reflex, brushed against the locket around my neck. “Mrs. Grayson, I’m not sure what you’re—”

  “I’m your mother!” she screamed. She turned and slapped me across the face. “You think I don’t know who you are, Jake?”

  I didn’t answer, my thoughts grinding to a halt. What was happening? My mother had never so much as raised her voice to me, much less hit me. What...

  “She showed me what you became.” She nodded and pulled me into a hug, then caressed my hair. “In the future, when you marry that girl upstairs. I can’t let that happen. Can’t let her steal you from me.”

  “Mom.” My voice trembled and I tried to pull myself free of her grip, but she wouldn’t let go. “Mom, what’s going on?”

  “Shhh, Jakey, it’s going to be okay,” she cooed, still stroking my hair.

  As I struggled to break free, my eyes settled on a corner of the room, where a form lay, splayed out on the ground. My breath caught in my throat as I stared in disbelief. It was my father. His eyes were open wide, staring, unblinking, at the ceiling. His head was caved in on the side, and it was caked in blood.

  “Dad!” I screamed, my mind refusing to
accept what I was seeing.

  My mom tried to hold onto me, but I wrestled free and bolted forward. I sprawled onto my hands and knees and grabbed him around the middle. I tried to pull him into my lap, but his muscles refused to yield. His skin was cold to the touch. He was... But he couldn’t be...

  Tears blurred my vision as I looked up at my mother, who had come to stand next to me. She was studying me in apparent confusion.

  “Call an ambulance!” I screamed at her. “What’s wrong with you? Mom, do something!”

  I cried out as she jumped on me. She wrapped her hands around my neck as she pushed me into the ground.

  “She told me you would do this,” she whispered, even as her grip tightened around my neck and static filled my vision. “I have to stop you. Have to save you.”

  I tried to struggle against her, but it was getting hard to think. I registered, dimly, that a wave of compressed spacetime rolled out from somewhere below my navel and slammed into my mother. The grip around my neck slackened as she cried out and slumped down on top of me. Pushing myself out from under her, I crawled to my hands and knees and choked out a ragged breath even as my mother dropped down onto the floor next to me. I looked up to see Amber standing a few feet away, a terrified look in her eye.

  I shoved myself to my feet, fighting to keep myself from throwing up as I looked back at my mother, who lay in a collapsed heap only a foot away from my father’s corpse.

  “She... she killed him.”

  My breath came in heaving gasps, but I had to speak. The horror of what lay before me was too much for words, but the overwhelming silence gathering around me was swallowing me whole. I couldn’t think. This couldn’t be...

  Amber pulled me away, forcing my head around and tearing my eyes away from the sight on the floor. She squeezed me into a desperate hug, her breath as ragged as mine. I held onto her, my body seizing up.