Wandering Ch. 02

I projected myself into all thirteen of my assailants a spoke, mind to mind. "If you do not leave this instant and never return, you will each die as will all of your families." Instead of fear, I sensed---- ridicule and disdain. I was a little shocked by this. My threat wasn't idle and they knew that. Still they came.

Ellie tensed next to me and I felt her terror. In a less time than it takes to form an idea, we were gone, leaving our assailants contemplating two human shaped shells I left behind. As we traveled I felt someone following. This was something I hadn't previously encountered. I had never considered that other wanderers could follow our path through time and space. I decided to see how good they were.

With thoughts faster than a computer can calculate, I took us on a series of jumps in and out of time, from place to place through the universe, into and out of dangers and hostile environments, and I could sense my pursuer falling way. A few thousand more moves and whoever they were would be gone for good. After ten minutes of leaving a trail of bread crumbs around the universe, I jumped on my own trail and started pursuing my pursuers. I had the advantage of knowing where they had to go next in order to follow the trail I had left just minutes before. If I could catch them before they found where I had rejoined my previous path, they might not put two and two together and know they were now being followed.

When I was within reach of their minds, I leapt forward and joined with them. There were five pursuers and my intervention into their inner beings caused them to lose their respective trains of thought and come crashing to a halt. I was angry and they responded in a panic. I scoured each mind for every useful ability and memory they contained and then left. What I left behind were empty shells. Not stupid, not injured, not dead, just empty. I had severed their wandering souls from their living bodies and then cast the unfettered souls into an abyss on planet so far from earth that they would forever think they were in Hell. I wasn't kind enough to leave the souls together, where they might accidently find each other and take some solace. I put them far, far apart where they will remain. Alone. Devolving into a madness that will never be relieved until the universe itself was remade. I made sure the living bodies would be found wandering in the African desert by bandits and each would be used as a fuck toys by every horny diseased African for a thousand miles.

Free from my pursuers, I put Ellie in my cell and left to deal with the reality of my assailants. With the information I had taken from them, I first went to their homes and wiped all evidence of their lives out of existence. Children, spouses, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, everything. Gone in seconds. No shadow or hint of them remained. This is the side of me that makes my self imposed exile tolerable.

Next I returned to the scene of the initial attack, back in the Dominican Republic. From high above I seized control of the remaining eight attackers and repeated with them what I had done with the five pursuers. They ceased to be. From my thirteen attackers I was able to glean who was the power behind this and every other attack. I knew who it was, where they were, and what their purposes were.

And I knew that my attackers had been sent to die and to give me that information. It was a trap and it was obvious. The message was clear. My enemy wanted me to know that they could predict my reactions and had accounted for them. There was only one type of wanderer that could do that. Only a time traveler like myself could see so much into the future and the past to see and predict with any accuracy what I would do next.

So I did what I was sure they didn't expect. I gave them exactly what they wanted.

Me.

I leapt across the miles and found myself in a cozy office appointed in muted browns with touches of yellow and peach. The air was fragrant with perfume. My enemy had her back to me, staring out into the night, wondering how the battle fared, since her mental connection with her thirteen assassins had been broken. She didn't have to turn to see me, she need only drop her eyes and see me in the reflection on the window she stood in front of her.

"Hello Sheppard. My name is...."

"Lillian. Lillian Lazarus," I interrupted.

"I see you have talents I did not realize. Am I to assume all of my thirteen best assassins are dead?" she asked without turning.

"Assassins? Don't you mean mindless minions? Of course they are dead. Just as you knew they would be."

"Far from mindless. I need to send word to their families through the appropriate channels." She looked in the reflection to see my reaction to the killings.

"I've saved you the trouble. They have no next of kin."

"Of course they do," she corrected. "And they have a right to know that their loved ones gave their lives for their country."

"Suit yourself. They have no next of kin and their next of kin has no next of kin either."

"What are you saying? Did you.....?" Her voice trailed off in the realization as to what I inferred. She stiffened and turned.

"Those thirteen each had a portion of your talent and they knew the risks in attempting to bring you in. But the families, why did you destroy the families? It was HUNDREDS of people! You are far and away the most talented 'wanderer' as you call yourself, why did you kill all those people?"

"Do you think now is the time for empty flattery," I asked while contemplating the demise of the woman in front of me. "Those people are all dead because I warned them and they didn't listen. When I ran, they followed. They threatened me and the woman I was with. I warned them and then I did what I threatened. Are you all that surprised?"

"Not surprised. Amazed. Merely stating the obvious. My thirteen Shadow Assassins have never been beaten, never tied, never tested. Yet you destroyed them all in less than fifteen minutes while protecting the woman you love and never even getting your hair mussed in the process. Never in the Seven Ages has the likes of you ever been." She turned for the first time and locked her eyes into mine.

I could sense her attempting to gain control of my mind and mix with my soul. Her attempts were clumsy and ineffective. To let her know I found her attempted intrusions to be an insult, I crossed the short gap between us with a thought and seized her pleasure zone. I stroked and teased and the waves of pleasure that her physical body responded with took her entirely by surprise.

"Wha...wha...what are you.....you doing.....t t t to me?" she asked through her first orgasm. "How can you be doing this at all?" Her knees buckled and she fell. She landed on her knees with her legs spread and her heels under her ass. Her shoulders slumped forward and her head lolled to the side, like a marionette dropped on the floor. Even though I wasn't controlling her muscles, she hadn't the strength or the will to move her arms. I walked across the room to a brown leather couch and took a seat. As she knelt limp and powerless, arms at her sides, I entered her virgin cunt with a thought.

"Ohhhhh!! OHHHHHH! OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH! My God, what is happening to me? I never saw this at all........ I never knew this could happen...... I never knew I wanted this to happen...... I-I-I I am commmmmmmmmiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggg!" For the first time in her seven thousand years, Lillian Lazarus tasted earthly pleasure.

After several smaller after shocks, Lillian found the strength to control her limbs again.

"Can I stand up please?" she asked, knowing full well that a being capable of giving her such pleasure could also give her ten-fold in pain. I nodded.

"May I ask you a question?"

Again I nodded.

"Why do I still exist?"

An interesting question. Not that it didn't convey a certain logic on her part, but I really hadn't considered that she still existed at all. I was merely toying with her until I decided how best to dispose of her in a punishment to last another Seven Ages.

I shrugged. "I guess because I am not finished with you yet. I am going to ask you a few questions first. It doesn't matter whether you tell me the truth or not. I will know the truth when I hear it."

"First, who am I? Second, why am I?"

She sat in the facing me, crossing her legs and contemplating her answer.

"You are that You are," she finally said, looking pleased with her answer.

"Are you trying to convince me that I am a god? Or THE God? I can assure you that I am not God or even a lesser god. I am just a young man making his way through existence as best I can." I laughed at her obvious misconception.

"I am Lillian Lazarus. I have lived Seven Ages waiting for your return. I am the Alpha. You are the Omega." As she spoke her eyes lost all of their white. Inky black spheres probed at me, attempting to find a way to enter my mind. I gave her a short mental slap on the forehead and her eyes returned to normal.

"You are off your freaking rocker, that's what you are. Seven Ages. Alpha and Omega. I don't know what you are smoking, but I'd take a bowl to go." I laughed at her in ridicule. "Neat trick with the eyes though."

"Sheppard Delgado, you are my other half. I am the Resurrection and you are the Life. Together we will bring and end to the Seventh Age of Mankind and herald the Eighth Age: The Age of Atonement." She was losing control of herself again.

"You are right, I AM Sheppard Delgado. I am a Wanderer, not the end of an Age. I will not be bothered again with the likes of you. Amusing as you are, you are threat to yourself and others. You must no longer be." With that decision made, I reached into her earthly body and tore her soul from its bonds.

That, I am afraid, was a big mistake.