Epilogue.

Two weeks later.

Tony.

“So what now?”, I asked him, watching as he swirled the contents of the lacasera in the bottle. He seemed so different now, disconnected from everything, and everyone. “The battles are far from over... I’m leaving earth for an indefinite period of time. I need to find the gods of the void, and ally with them.” He took a long sip before continuing. “And I need to learn the full extent of the Mind’s powers, I can’t die now or the seal will come undone, and everything will be in vain.”  He was leaving without me? We had been through so much already, that I thought we were nigh inseparable. Well, guess not.

“And I can’t come with?”, I asked, already knowing the answer, but needing an explanation. “You have to stay here man, Earth needs protection from what is to come.” I cocked my head curiously, asking him what he meant by that. “When I bonded with the Mind, I died and came back. That single action nullified all existing contracts I had with every malicious being that wanted the earth for the taking. They will be back, and the earth will not be the same after this. That is why I need you and Míriel here, as the last line of defence. But you will need backup.”

He reached out to me with his finger and tapped my forehead. Pain shot through my forehead and I jolted back instinctively. “What the hell man! That hurt!” X managed a faint mischievous grin and continued. “I just implanted the information about special individuals living on earth that I’ve met over the years. Find them, and get ready for what is coming. It is going to be hell, and like I said, the earth will no longer be the normal home you know.”

“This is a bit too much, X” I found myself saying. Assaults on the earth? Becoming a protector of the planet? This wasn’t what I signed up for. I didn’t know the first thing about being a hero. How was I even going to find the people on X’s list? “I know, it seems unfair, but I can’t trust anyone else with this. Believe me when I tell you I don’t want to leave, but I have to. Time is of the essence.” I was about to protest again, when Catherine came up to us both. She wore a pair of jeans and a loose fitting shirt. “Hey guys...” she drawled and sat adjacent to X. “What’s up? You said you wanted to tell me something.” X shot me a look, and I took that as my cue to leave. I stood and left to go find Míriel, before she killed someone.

She left the Gentry and came with me to earth and she fit right in, excluding all the stares she got. Nigerians. “I’ll see you guys later, gotta bounce.” I was up and out of the restaurant before Cathy could say a word. I did look back, however and silently wished him luck. Cathy wouldn’t take the news well, that was for sure.

Oh boy.

X

“You’re leaving?!” Her shrill voice rang out, attracting stares from other people in the restaurant. I’d expected that she wouldn’t take the news well, but I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye.  Yeah...my...dad called me, he needs me to go on a trip for him, it’s family related, and it’s for an indefinite period of time, so I don’t know when I’ll be back.” I saw tears well in her eyes and I felt stung. I didn’t want to leave either, but if I didn’t, she and the rest of the multiverse, wouldn’t exist anymore, it would just be a matter of time. “When do you leave?”, she asked finally after moments of silence. “I’ll be leaving in two days, I’ve already taken my leave, I just needed to tell you before I left. I’m sorry.”

She said nothing for a bit, but when she spoke, the sadness in her voice had diminished. “Lets spend the remaining time together then.”, she said, smiling sadly. I stood up and outstretched my hand. “Where do you want to go?” her smile widened and I knew I was in for a lot of fun.

We went to ShopRite in Enugu, because why not. We had walked around, eaten, taken pictures, eaten some more, watched as many movies as they had, packed more food to eat on the way home, and some more to eat at her house. We got back to Nsukka in the dead of the night, walking to her place and still shouting, not caring about anyone ambushing us. When we reached her gate, it was locked and everywhere was silent, so we had to go to my place. We stayed up late, talking about random things, movies, comics and everything in between.

She put on music and started dancing, dragging me up to join her. I was a terrible dancer from birth, like my genes had rejected the idea of me ever dancing like a normal person, but I joined her anyway. We laughed at my awkward movements and how she outclassed me by far. Then without thinking, I grabbed her waist from behind and she fell into me. I turned her around to face me and kissed her on the lips once. I stared into her eyes and managed a faint smile.

“Hi”, I said and was still thinking of what to say when she kissed me back with hungry lips. We stumbled back onto the bed and the kiss deepened. She straddled me and kissed me voraciously, toll we couldn’t breathe, but even then, I didn’t want to let go of her. When she took her lips off mine, she stayed, still straddling me. “Idiot, why didn’t you tell me?” I held her waist tighter, taking in that sweet jasmine scent that drew me to her in the first place.

“Things get weird when a friend wants more than friendship. I wasn’t ready to risk that” she threw her hands over my shoulders and sighed. I’ve been in love with you since I met you, X. I was even scared that maybe you only saw me as a friend.” I chuckled, and kissed her again. “Will you wait for me to return?”  she kissed me back and sighed with pleasure. “Do I have a choice?” I stood, with her legs wrapped around me and pinned her to the wall.  “I don’t think you do.”

We made love the whole night. With magical protection, of course.

Early the next morning, I woke up and dressed, wrote a note to her, and dropped the keys on the note. I left soon afterwards, but before I did, I texted Tony. Protect Cathy. With that, I was gone, I teleported to the Maw, the entry point of the Void. It was a raging storm of dark energy that churned and swirled at relativistic speeds. I flew to the edge and took a deep breath. I was going into uncharted, possibly hostile territory, but there was only one thing in my mind.

This was going to be interesting, no doubt.

I jumped and fell into the Void