THE METRONOME by Thomas Lipschultz 1/12/99-1/20/99 a story from the Dreamseekers universe It happened. It actually happened. Matthew knew it would, but he had hoped and prayed that it wouldn't. Nearly everyone he had ever known was dead, and it was ultimately his own fault. Worst of all, his son was God-knows-where, under the impression that HE was the one responsible. The boy, Wyrd Glenlin, truly believed that he had killed everyone. He didn't even know his father was still alive. How could he? He wasn't even sure what he had done! Matthew couldn't just sit by and while away his neverending existence. Wyrd was an immortal timebomb ready to go off at any moment only to be fully armed once again. He had to be found. But what would Matthew do then? He couldn't tell him. Definitely not. That would only make matters worse. A young boy, aware that he would have to live a life of guilt for the rest of eternity thanks to his father... no, that should never happen. Not until Wyrd learned to cope with himself first. Matthew boarded the Culprit. It was only a small pod, but it was enough to take him to Aksl'ak, and it was the only real option left. The Planet Hopper was long gone, hijacked years ago from a deserted planet by his guilt-ridden son. Jedic Yenbec, the first Immortal. He would be Matthew's only hope. Many years ago, he discovered the Seeds of Aksl in the garden near the city, and ate one in the name of science. He soon discovered that it gave him awesome power, but when that power was accidentally used to kill a friend, he turned to suicide. It didn't work. It was then that he realized the curse that Immortals must live with. If only Matthew had understood back then, none of this would've happened... Jedic banished himself to a nearby planet, but only cursed himself further when he attempted to create humanoid life there. His creations existed with hideous flaws, and were unable to learn the universal tongue. The planet, as well as the seeds, were named from the word "Aksl," which translates from their language as "endless pain." This is the man Matthew Glenlin sought an audience with. The Culprit landed on one of the numerous plains of gray dirt on the planet Aksl'ak. The dead soil felt like sand under his feet as Matthew took his first step from the pod. In the distance, the outline of a large building, built of equally featureless gray dirt, could be distinguished. It seemed to be the only visible structure, but it was mammoth in size. The sky was a lighter shade of gray, blanketed in harmless cloudcover. The stale air would take a while to get used to, as Matthew had anticipated when choosing a landing spot. The temperature was moderately warm, with an equally warm breeze blowing away from the structure in the north. Matthew began to trek toward the structure. His progress was slow due to the sandy texture of the ground, but he quickly grew accustomed to his new environment, and started to think about how he would approach Jedic, and what he would ask. That's when he heard the noise. It was a dull but profound clicking, occurring once every second, on the dot, with no margin of error. It seemed to be emanating from beyond the next dune. Matthew stopped in his tracks, listening with confusion and curiosity. Suddenly, an ear-piercing scream that seemed to come from the sky itself overshadowed the clicking. Matthew covered his ears and fell to the ground in horror, tears streaming from his face. Never before had he heard such a shrill scream, nor one so full of suffering and anguish. A second scream joined the first, and Matthew's ears began to bleed under the pressure of his hands. The first scream died away, then the second, and then a third scream immediately began. Matthew passed out. When he woke, he wasn't sure how much time had passed. Hours, days, maybe years... His slumber was filled with a seemingly infinite number of nightmares, and the banshee-like wailing was still ringing in his bloody ears. The clicking still resounded every second, causing the tears to continue running down his face with renewed vigor. He didn't think they had stopped, even while he was unconscious. He hesitated in fear, one hand on his forehead and another curled into a fist. He had a pounding headache, and all he could think about was the endless click, click, click resonating from one end of his body to another. He wanted to drop dead on the spot, but realized in horror that he couldn't. After another eternity of waiting, thankfully without any more screams, he finally decided that his options were limited. He really had no choice but to continue onward. Against every impulse in his body, he slowly walked forward, traversing the dune, ready to face the diabolical beast he would find on the other side. With each step, the clicking became louder, deeper, and more resonant. Tears still streaming from his face, he made it to the top of the dune, and almost passed out again in sheer terror at the sight awaiting him on the other side. There were people. Billions of people. People in every direction, stretching as far as the eye could see. They were completely nude, but none had any form of genitalia, and everyone looked exactly like everyone else, making it impossible to determine gender or age. Each one stood in place, facing the structure to the north, carrying a hand- held device with a large red button on it in its right palm. Every second, on the dot, each person would simultaneously press the button, and the dull clicking of billions of thumbs hitting billions of plastic buttons at the exact same moment resonated all around at a horrifically high volume. Here and there, a corpse could be found. Some were rotting skeletons, and some were very fresh. Each corpse had a look of sheer terror on its face, and it was very obvious that they died in absolute agony. Some had toppled like dominos, creating a long line of terror-stricken corpses. These were the Clock People of Aksl'ak, Jedic's humanoid creations. Jaw gaping in absolute shock, Matthew stepped toward the throng of people. He took another step. And another. He began to walk in time with the clicking. For a moment, the whole of life seemed like nothing but those clicks. Every second, a step and a click. Every moment passing in succession. No break. No spontaneity. No chaos. Life was a clock ticking away. Life was a metronome, swinging back and forth at a set rhythm. Was it just a moment? Matthew looked around. He was significantly closer to the structure, but much too far from relief. There was no empty land anywhere in sight. Nothing but gray people on a gray world with a gray sky and a large gray building nearby. He was right in the middle of the congregation of Clock People. He stared into a face at random. The eyes briefly glanced at him, then looked down at the device with the red button again. Matthew studied it a bit more closely, and was horrified to see that it wasn't being carried at all: it was a part of the creature's hand, button and all, attached directly to its skin! Matthew closed his eyes momentarily. No relief from the noise. No sanctuary. No silence. He walked faster, very careful not to bump into anyone. No matter how fast he tried to walk, though, he always found himself slowing to a pace that matched the rhythm of the clicking. And each time he attempted to walk faster, the eyes of every nearby person would look away. Perhaps he was an unwanted distraction. The eyes. He finally realized what was making this journey seem to take forever. The eyes of the Clock People. They called for help. They reflected nothing but torture and oppressive sadness. These people wanted to live their lives, but they had no lives to live. They were never meant to be. They were fashioned by a god who was never meant to be. Matthew wondered if he should talk to them. They were calling for help, of that he was certain... but would conversation provide the help they needed, or would it merely hinder them? He picked one of them at random and began to speak in a very quiet voice. "H, hello? M, my name is Matthew..." The creature shook its head very slowly, in time with the clicking. It slowly opened its mouth, and blurted out the following words, as if struggling to form them: "U'sturestan! K'anna no'i!" It then closed its eyes. It was shaking. It was scared. "I... I'm sorry. I'll go now." The creature didn't respond. It closed its eyes and continued pressing the red button on its hand-device. Matthew walked a few steps, then chose another creature at random. "Hello? P, please, let me help you..." The creature seemed startled by Matthew's words, and quickly turned its head to glance at him, with a look of panic on its face. It was then that Matthew happened to glance downward. He noticed that the creature pressed the button far too soon. The hand-device seemed to melt into ashes and fall from its hand, leaving a charred and bloody hole in its wake. The creature looked terrified. It grabbed its head with both hands, stared skyward, and began screaming with the same shrill and piercing scream that had almost driven Matthew to madness. Matthew grabbed his ears and fell to his knees, more tears streaming from his face. The creature unintentionally mimicked the same position, wailing the whole time, its head getting completely crushed between its hands. It fell to the ground, on its side, blood streaming from pores here and there. The look on its face was more than Matthew could bear. He fell unconscious again. He could feel himself hit several Clock People on the way down. His dreams were full of piercing screams. This time, when he opened his eyes, his surroundings were more hospitable. He was on a rather comfortable bed in an elegantly-lit room with a rather nice meal sitting on a table nearby. The area was completely silent, save for the ringing in his ears that he feared would never go away. The clicking still continued, but only in his mind. His body was still stuck on a second-by-second cycle, and every movement he made was perfectly in time with the phantom metronome. He suddenly sat up in bed and began to yell. "Where am I? What happened? Did I... kill them? Is this a dream?" He looked behind him and saw blood on the pillow from his ear. Whatever blessed person brought him here didn't tend to his medical needs very well. Nevertheless, having received no answer from his yells, Matthew decided to partake of the meal left for him. It consisted of steak, potatoes, gravy, and corn, with a glass of milk on the side. He hadn't eaten this well for years, and was very grateful to his anonymous caretaker. As he ate, he examined his surroundings. He was in a rather large bedroom with a double-bed, nightstand, table, two chairs, and a chest-of-drawers. There was a very expensive-looking rug on the ground and one door in the back of the room. There was an unusually perfect lighting scheme, as if someone had spent months obsessively changing it ever- so-slightly until it was just right. However, the light seemed to have no source whatsoever. Matthew swallowed the last piece of steak, then took a final swig of milk. When his glass hit the table, he heard footsteps approaching the door in the back. He was immediately alert again. The door opened. "J'edach said you'd be finishing your meal soon. You didn't sense my presence?" The voice belonged to a rather ordinary-looking man with short blonde hair, wearing a green robe. He grinned. "As I suspected, you didn't. It seems you have much to learn, M'attu." Matthew wasn't quite sure what to make of this man. He paused for a moment, all the while staring at the sly grin looming over him. He slowly stammered a response. "Uh, no, I, uh... I didn't... know you were, uh... coming... h, how did... uh... wh, what did you call me?" The man's grin seemed to widen. "J'edach told me all about you. Is he not the one you are here to see?" "Y, you mean Jedic?" The man nodded. "I am Ju'udas Ni'illim here on Aksl'ak. You may know me better as Judas Nihilim. J'edach I'enbek is Jedic's Aksl'akan name." Matthew paused again, with his jaw open about halfway. "You... you're Judas Nihilim? The shuttlecraft engineer?" Judas nodded again. "The single-passenger shuttle I disappeared in, the Red Mary... it's here. This planet has so much more to offer me than I'irgon did. I've been studying Immortals through J'edach and U'uksleih for the past fifteen years. I never saw a need to return. Your boy never met me, though I was watching ten years ago when it happened..." Matthew was stunned. "You... saw it? All of it?" Judas's smile returned. Had it ever gone away? "You shall need to meet with J'edach immediately, M'attu. You and he... have much to discuss. Please, follow me." Obliging without question, Matthew got up and began to follow Judas. As soon as he stepped through the door in his room, he noticed the overwhelming size of the building. It was monstrous from the outside, and seemed even bigger inside. The ceilings were so high as to be almost invisible. One with a fear of heights would be unable to even crawl through a hallway of such magnitude without going insane. Whenever Matthew managed to make out a section of ceiling, the unnatural shadows cast upon it quickly led him to focus on his feet. After a while, he stopped even attempting to pay attention to his surroundings. The path Judas was leading him on was far too convoluted for him to ever remember anyway. A thought occurred to him. "Judas. Are you an Immortal now?" Without breaking his stride, Judas looked back at him in surprise. "Interesting question. The answer, however, is no. Why do you ask?" "Well, it would be difficult enough for a mortal to survive the incessant clicking without going insane, but the screams should surely be enough to kill even the strongest man. I'm curious as to how you made it here." Another momentary grin. Judas focused forward again. "I got lucky, M'attu. I ran. I heard only one scream, and though it was enough to knock me out, I was only a few steps from the sanctuary. J'edach took me in, just as I took you in. For a while, it was just the two of us and the Clock People. Then U'uksleih came along. You remember him, don't you, M'attu?" "I, I'm sorry, but I'm no expert on the Aksl'ak language." Judas stopped in his tracks. "It's Axelay, Matthew. The former gate guard. The one you encountered... that night." Matthew closed his eyes. He remembered. He remembered all too well. "Will I be seeing him... here?" Judas nodded. "He knows what you've been through, M'attu." He started walking again. "He holds no grudge against you." Matthew slowly opened his eyes. Judas was almost out of sight. Matthew ran to catch up to him. "M'attu G'lenllin. Welcome to Aksl'ak." They were in the main chamber. A throne room, of sorts. Matthew had unconsciously expected that Jedic would live in luxury, but instead, as intellect might have suggested, he was a ruler of nothingness. The first Immortal sat on a plain wooden chair in the middle of a gray dirt floor. Next to him, further in the shadows, sat another man dressed in armor and brandishing an unusual-looking staff. On the opposite side of Jedic's throne was another chair, currently empty. The room's boundaries were beyond visibility, so far away that the lighting faded to black long before any were even remotely hinted at. The ceiling was the same. Only the wall from which Matthew and Judas entered was visible. Matthew collected himself as best as he could. "Jedic Yenbec, I presume?" Jedic stood. "Please, while you are on this planet, do obey its customs. Call me by my Aksl'akan name, J'edach." "S, sorry. J'edach. And to your left, that would be... U'uksleih?" The armored man stood. "It's been a while, M'attu. I can't say I've missed you, though." Matthew bowed his head. After a few moments of silence, he spoke. "My first order of business is to apologize to both of you. I know now that what I did ten years ago was wrong. And I know that I'm ultimately the one to blame for any harm my son causes. If only I'd listened sooner, and understood what a curse this life is, we'd have no need to meet with one another now. And Axelay, you poor man... because you wouldn't shoot a man holding a baby, you failed in your duties and were condemned to the same hell as I! And now I've killed some of your kind as well as nearly all of mine. The Clock People... their deaths were so meaningless..." He ran out of words. Thoughts were swimming through his head, but none of them could be articulated. The silence was everlasting. Then, in an instant, it was broken by Jedic. "Their deaths were meaningless, but welcome. You gave them a final burst of misery before putting them out of it. I'm not sure if it's humane, but there's no way to tell if it isn't. As for U'uksleih, your punishment is far worse than his. He failed to adequately guard the seeds, and thus was made Immortal and summoned to assist me. You, however, received the same gift, as well as the knowledge that you're responsible for U'uksleih's state. A double burden of guilt to bear. I don't envy you. But then, I have the worst punishment of all." With that final line, he sat once again. His face was cold and emotionless -- a mask disguising his true feelings. If the mask were removed, the sight might be too much for Matthew to bear. Axelay said nothing. He seemed to be staring into the nether world. After a few minutes, he noticed that Jedic had seated himself, and followed suit. This time, it was Matthew who broke the silence. "You see why I must find my son, then. Wyrd is a danger to his surroundings. He has no knowledge of where his powers come from, making him infinitely more volatile." "And what will you do once you find him, M'attu?" Matthew closed his eyes once again. He gave the impression of a mourner lost in grief. Then, in a single moment, he blurted his answer. "Follow him. I'll shadow him for the rest of eternity. I'll be his invisible guardian angel, protecting him from himself." Silence. Without a single movement, Jedic was smiling. "Very well, then. I'll guide you to your son, M'attu. However, you must first perform a service for me. I need proof that you can be the boy's... invisible guardian angel, as you put it." "Anything, J'edach. Name your price." Jedic's grin had imperceptibly grown. "I've been an Immortal longer than anyone else, M'attu. And in my few extra years, I've done an eternity's worth of pondering. I believe that the Aksl seeds were placed on I'irgon as a test. God knew that once they had been discovered, they'd be either sought after or condemned. Mankind's reaction to them would determine mankind's fate. Naturally, for something to be the ultimate jury of our destiny, it would have to be both a worthwhile prize and a worthwhile curse. The prize is eternal life, which can also be a curse. The curse are the powers, which can also be a prize. The powers always create evil, even if focused upon good. For example, the creation of life by an Immortal never works out as planned. Only God-borne creatures can learn the universal language, and only God- borne creatures can take on all of the facets of humanity. No Immortal can create a successful mortal. Every Immortal can create another Immortal, however... but in doing so, he or she only brings forth another pitiful life doomed to failure. And any mistakes we make, of which there are destined to be many, we must live with for eternity. Our only wish is to die, but we cannot -- not through normal means, anyway. "But there is hope, M'attu. Even if our powers can only be used to create evil, evil can be purified into good. This is where I must ask for your service. My Clock People lead pointless lives, struggling every second to make sure their biological clocks keep ticking. If their minds ever wander, or if they ever lose focus on their only inane purpose for existence, they will die. They have no sex, and thus cannot reproduce. But there are so many that were created, all on a whim... I fear they'll never see extinction, and their deaths are so agonizing that it just doesn't seem right to kill them all. I want you to find a way to allow them to live, M'attu. Find a way to give them the lives they deserve, the lives we ALL deserve. If you can improve their situation, even marginally, I will tell you where your son is. You may use any means possible, and I'm sure Ju'udas wouldn't mind lending you a hand. Will you attempt this service for me, M'attu?" Of course, Matthew accepted Jedic's offer. Although the task given him seemed almost inconceivably mammoth, he really had no other choice. What else was left for him in the universe he had forsaken ten years ago? Judas and Matthew began to traverse the long path from which they had arrived only an hour or so before. There seemed no better location than the luxurious room Matthew woke up in to toy with ideas and work with the impossible -- unless, of course, Judas had better accommodations within the enormous building they serpented through, but he seemed unwilling to discuss such matters. After a few minutes of walking among twists and turns, past a seemingly endless array of doors and pitfalls and pillars of ungodly heighth, Judas broke the monotonous sound of silence and footsteps with a single softly-spoken phrase: "You'll be here forever, M'attu." The phrase echoed emptily through the void. A few more minutes passed, and Judas spoke again, this time in a very loud and threatening voice. "You WILL be here forever, M'attu. Don't think I stay here for the ambience." He quieted a bit. "I too have sought the answer to J'edach's little puzzle. I too have been given a promise to have my most pressing wish granted if I solve it. But I fear it's nothing more than busywork. We're being held here for his personal gain. I don't know what he intends to do with us, but he has no plans to grant either of our wishes." Neither of them said anything for a while. The walk seemed to be taking much longer this time. Finally, Matthew responded. "Why do you stay here, then?" Judas briefly laughed. "I still hope that my wish will be granted. I want it so badly, M'attu... I'll stay here until I die, if need be. And while I very muchly doubt that either of us will ever come up with anything even remotely plausible, you may have some ideas that I've never considered. Just be forewarned that once a solution is reached, it's every man for himself. J'edach will only accept one of us as the savior of his pathetic race of beings... and I intend to be that savior." Judas came to a halt in front of a door that looked exactly like every other door the two of them had passed. "This is your room, M'attu. We're going to be spending a lot of time in here. Let's hope for a speedy resolution. And then, once an idea has been formed, may the better man's wish be granted." Years passed. Matthew began to realize why Judas hadn't ever wanted to discuss his accommodations on Aksl'ak: the mere mention of them would've driven him to madness. Matthew's room, while very comfortable and beautiful, had become a sickening locale. Every day was the same: hours would be spent at the table, going over ideas and plans that always failed when put to the test. The agonizing wails of dying Clock People made every unsuccessful product testing a disheartening and intensely painful ordeal. It seemed like such a simple puzzle to conquer, but in reality, it was the most vile and degrading task anyone could ever be subjected to. Many days, Matthew wondered how the mortal Judas could survive such defeats. His willpower must've been enormous. Whatever wish he sought, he sought it with every fiber of his being, yet Matthew could never bring himself to ask what it was. The underlying idea focused around the concept of a metronome. A device which would keep track of time for each individual seemed to be the most logical solution. But in all trial runs, every device the duo had developed merely resulted in death. Somewhere, a crucial factor wasn't being taken into account, and this single unknown factor resulted in years of torture for the two unwilling inventors. Then, one day, without any warning, everything changed. The answer came to Matthew in his sleep, during the very dark hours of the night when only the insane or the brilliant, or the Clock People, would dare be awake to the world. The missing link wasn't an object, but a concept: synchronization. The two inventors had constantly attempted to synchronize their metronome device with the thought patterns of a test subject by linking it directly with the subject's brain. Their goal was to hook it up, but not activate it; the thought patterns of the Clock Person were supposed to trigger its activation, and the time delay was designed to handle the rest. But if merely greeting a Clock Person had been enough to kill it, then surely attaching a device to its brain would be equally fatal. That much had been thought of already. But now the answer had come to Matthew, and he was determined not to lose it. He left the room hurriedly, metronome in hand, without bothering to wake Judas. The full extent of the monstrous maze of doors was still unknown to him, but one path had become like second nature: the way out. He ran, as fast as he possibly could, panting, fighting for breath, trying not to forget, nor to realize how truly illogical and unfathomably insane his idea was. After all, how could he, a single man, time something so perfectly, especially with a life at stake? He threw open the door, and was greeted by the darkness of space, lit by a moon from a faraway planet, the sound of clicking echoing around him, perhaps audible even on that distant satellite. The grayness of Aksl'ak seemed like blackness at this hour, an ominous silhouette of a maddeningly sterile landscape, spotted with human figures like individual hairs on a head or particles of sand on a beach. And one of those hairs, one of those particles, would be tonight's guinea pig. If it could survive through to the morning, Matthew's time on Aksl'ak would end, and his quest would finally begin. He silently poised himself behind a randomly chosen being and listened. The clicking never wavered, never subsided. It never would. But if this worked, it would no longer be something through which any of them need live its life. Matthew continued to listen. He listened with every fiber of his being. He timed the one-second intervals. He pressed the button on his hand. He became a Clock Person. He felt what it was like to depend on this function for survival. He survived, one second at a time. He knew he was doing the right thing. He went over the plan in his mind. He struck. In one solid movement, just as the test subject's thumb was about to hit its button, Matthew violently slid the metronome into place. The Aksl'akan's thumb was pushed forward, and the metronome snapped onto its hand-device, immediately marking its first second. As soon as it was attached, Matthew quickly covered his ears and closed his eyes. A minute passed. All he could hear was the steady clicking ringing out through the atmosphere. No screams of torment echoed around him. No death cries. No nightmares. He was suddenly brought back to reality by a hand touching his left shoulder. He quickly jumped full-circle, opening his eyes and uncovering his ears. His test subject was laughing silently. Matthew stood there, studying its face as if examining a mouse that just located cheese at the end of a maze. The sorrow and suffering had completely vanished, replaced by surprise and momentary elation. After years of painful devotion to a seemingly impossible goal, it had finally happened: the metronome was functional. Matthew joined in with the being's giddy laughter, grabbing its shoulders and jumping up and down in sheer joy. The laughter increased in volume, almost overshadowing the incessant clicking. Wails of dying Clock People echoed all around them; the beings were distracted by a sound they had never heard before. But for the first time ever, Matthew wasn't affected by any of it. He barely even noticed. The laughter of his reborn companion, as well as his own, eradicated the horror of the sounds around them. Matthew had restored a life, and brought hope to an entire race of beings. Nothing else mattered. "Si'kala m'ottu naha! Si'kala m'ottu naha!" These unknown words of joy seemed to echo louder than anything he had ever heard before. Matthew repeated them, as best as he could, then yelled every universal phrase he knew which represented complete satisfaction and happiness. Everything worked out for him perfectly, and now he would have the opportunity to follow his son and make things right again. That's when he felt the dagger pierce the back of his neck. He yelped in pain, instinctively bending his head backward. The knife was removed, and Matthew fell onto his back, narrowly missing any of the surrounding Clock People. The face he saw looming over him, grinning conceitedly, was that of Judas. "Aah, uh... Judas, what the hell... are you, unghh... are you doing? You kn, know... unghh... uh, know that you can't k, kill me..." Judas laughed. "J'edach said that Immortals cannot be killed by normal means, which means that they CAN be killed by ABNORMAL means. So I'm attempting to cut off your head." He began to duck down, intent upon slitting Matthew's throat. As he reached downward with the dagger, Matthew grabbed his wrist and attempted to force it away. "A, ahh, why are... why are you, uh... uh, doing this? You want... your wish g, granted... but aah, ah surely Jedic will know that I, unghh... I found the answer..." Judas's expression changed to pure hatred, and his tone of voice became entirely condescending. "J'edach refuses to grant my particular wish, even if I'm successful. He would grant both of ours if mine were more desirable to him, but he has final say on the matter, and he believes mine to be... destructive. But if I know J'edach as well as I believe I do, he will grant my wish if I kill you. Now LET GO OF MY HAND!" Matthew grit his teeth and pushed harder, veering left. Judas's hand was thrown, and the dagger flew to the ground, out of sight, partially burying itself in the sand, impossible to find again until daybreak. All this time, the newly reborn Clock Person was watching the situation in shock, not moving a muscle. Judas stared into Matthew's face for a few seconds, then got up, turned toward the Clock Person, and quickly motioned for it to follow him. Of course, it really had no idea how to do this. Judas sighed, walked behind the being, and pushed it forward. It took a few steps to keep from falling, its eyes closed in panic. When it realized that it had stayed erect -- and more than that, alive! -- it opened its eyes and mouth, gaping in joyful awe. The feeling didn't last very long, however. Judas pushed it again. This time, it crashed directly into another Clock Person's back, knocking it down to the ground in agony. The reborn being was staring at the corpse at its feet in a state of shock. But before it had time to fully realize what it had done, Judas pushed it again. This time, it got the message, and burst into a run. Judas followed the being into the Aksl'akan structure, both of them running. Matthew knew that he would never be able to find Jedic's throne room again without Judas to guide him, so he forced himself onto his feet, all the time struggling to ignore the unbearable pain in the back of his neck. He ran in pursuit, as fast as he could, vision blurring, weaving back and forth with imbalance due to the immense pain, pursuing the brief flashes he caught of Matthew's old and withered green robe through the twisty halls. At times, he felt faint, but he knew he could hold out. He didn't think of it at the time, but much later, he would wonder how the being knew exactly where to find Jedic within the maze. It seemed almost as if it were being guided from the destination. Finally, one door was flung open, within which the familiar endless chamber could be seen. Jedic and Axelay were seated in their respective spots, exactly as they had been before, and the third chair was still empty. As soon as the Clock Person entered the room, both Immortals ceremoniously stood. Judas followed, and a few seconds later, a very bloody Matthew staggered in. As soon as all three had arrived, Jedic spoke. "You need not tell me what happened, M'attu, nor you, Ju'udas. I saw the events unfold, and I congratulate you both for your work. You in particular, M'attu. As promised, you will both have your wishes granted. After observing your interactions with each other, I believe that you both deserve exactly what you get." Judas grinned, while Matthew became irate. "What? How can you grant this conniving murderer his wish? He deserves to be killed!" Jedic smiled slightly and began slowly walking toward Judas. "As I said, you both deserve exactly what you get. You became a mass-murderer out of greed, M'attu, but then realized the err of your ways, and so shall your wish reflect this. Ju'udas spent years working by my side only to betray you, foolishly attempting to kill you for his own greedy desires." He stopped directly in front of Judas, who was smiling a larger smile than he ever had before in his life. "So shall his wish reflect this." Jedic grabbed Judas's shoulders tightly. Judas screamed in pain, tilting his head back and shaking violently. The reborn being seemed bothered by the noise, and dropped to the floor with its eyes closed and its hands over its ears. After a few moments, Jedic let go. "Your wish has been granted, Ju'udas. You are now an Immortal, just as M'attu and U'uksleih and I are. May your neverending life reflect the greed and heartlessness you've displayed in mortality." He turned to Matthew. "Your son will soon land his ship on a planet called I'ipos, near a town called I'idalia. If you check your pod's computer, I am certain its location will be shown there. Your journey is only beginning, M'attu. May it be productive, and may it reflect your unusual desire to fix the broken past. If you follow U'uksleih, he will tend to your wounds before you go." Axelay silently walked into the inky blackness in back of the room, and once again obeying without question, Matthew began to follow him. As they were about to vanish from sight, however, Jedic spoke one word: "Wait." Both Axelay and Matthew halted. "Thank you for giving my people a new life to live. They will only be able to use their left hands for most tasks, and they will never be able to speak our language, but at least now they're able to think, and move, and exist as free beings for the first time ever. U'uksleih and I will spend the next few millennia building and applying these devices to all of the Clock People on Aksl'ak. Your kindness and skill will never be forgotten, M'attu G'lenllin. Fare thee well." Matthew smiled to himself, momentarily forgetting the pain. "Goodbye, J'edach. Goodbye, Judas. And farewell to you, my friend... whatever your name may be..." Axelay started walking again. Matthew felt much safer behind him than he had ever felt behind Judas. He followed, very happily, into the darkness. Once his neck had been properly attended to, Matthew followed the trail of his own blood back outside. As the Culprit left orbit around Aksl'ak that afternoon, Matthew looked down at the structure. Surrounding it, in an almost perfect circle, were tiny specks of black. They looked like ants around a giant anthill. Suddenly, Matthew grinned with an overwhelming sense of joy. Those ants would soon migrate, and who knows what kind of colonies they would build. Matthew's journey was only beginning that day, but he had no worries for the future. He had already begun to make amends for his past, and he knew he would be ready for any event that might transpire. Then one day, he would return to Aksl'ak, with his son at his side. And when that day arrived, Aksl'ak would be ready for them.