Quicker. Faster. Harder. Desperate. She had to do this right. Maybe … just maybe … she can save him …
Wayne Evans.
Maybe this was it, the event that forked her fate away from the True path. The turn of events which created a reality that was never supposed to exist. Maybe … just maybe … the world needs him …
Captain Indomitable.
Scarlet needed to try. If the Pillar of Ice and Flame sent her to this time stream, then something must be done. At least to do it again. At most to correct the future.
The Sky Raiders were not the issue: they existed before she came to Paragon. Nor could she stop the Vigilance weapons getting to them. But maybe … just maybe … she would be fast enough.
Scarlet exited the elevator and heard a nearby voice, “Get rid of it and we can be out of here.”
“No”. Her whisper drained her of hope … but not all of it.
She bolted down the hallway, pushing her already throbbing legs to run faster. Leaping to the opposite wall and spinning to put her feet forward, she planted both feet against the vertical surface. Using the wall a springboard, Scarlet rocketed toward Lt. Marshall. Her fists a blur as her bullet-like speed contacted with his helmet. The visor exploded as his neck whipped to the side. The rifle fired reflexively against the ceiling and his body was thrown into an unconscious pile to the corner.
Surprised, the engineer fumbled with his equipment and Scarlet pounced on him like a hawk to a rabbit. Her sonic abilities pried open his helmet and his eyes rolled back, becoming unconscious from syncope.
A laser bolt warmed her chin as the coherent beam missed her head by centimeters. Launching from her last victim, Scarlet’s fist found the Assault Raider’s stomach. He crumpled to the floor, his machete falling from his grip. Scarlet was gone by the time the weapon came to rest.
---
She sat on the couch in silence, staring at the objects on the coffee table. Scarlet could not stop thinking of Mender Taros’ words before she came home:
Everyone’s destiny is sealed at birth. What has happened was expected to happen. What is happening will happen again. The future is made by our actions today, but the end is already set in motion. His death cannot be changed, could not be changed. Take comfort that what is was meant to be. Keep them … Like you have already done so.
Captain Indomitable's Uni-Bands rested silently on the coffee table. Their gold luster lost in the darkness.
A cat’s tail crossed her vision to the bracers.
A tear flowed down her cheek to splash upon her chest.
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