PART FIFTEEN: A SERIES OF INEXPLICABLE EVENTS
A thorough investigation for the esteemed leader of the Golden Knights Agency in Timeline Delta-1 (D-1) Miss Elora Edouard had run on for several weeks without generating any substantial leads. Leal Grayson, who had been spearheading the man-hunt for Miss Edouard, woke up to a phone call from the DoD (D-1) informing him that Miss Edouard’s cadaver had been found in her apartment with the cause of death being concluded as an apparent suicide. Leal wasted no time in getting ready and rushing to the scene of the crime and was astounded to find that indeed, Miss Edouard’s cadaver was being zipped up and removed from the scene.
The Protectors of the DoD had even found a note and Miss Edouard’s Last Will and Testament on her Communicator Pad. Leal was astounded that the former DoD Director of Timeline D-3, Pheonix Port, had decided to abandon his persona as Miss Edouard given how difficult it must have been to take over her Consciousness in the first place. Stranger still was the fact that Port had left the possession and leadership of the Golden Knights Agency solely to Leal Grayson having no legal heirs to bequeath the esteemed agency to.
The following morning, there was an uproar in the Golden Knights Agency once the news spread that Miss Edouard was no more and that the agency was in Leal’s possession. Leal had meetings practically all day beginning with an Executive Board Meeting to meeting the middle management and line managers of the Agency including squadron leaders. The Executive Board had recommended a forensic audit of the entire Agency to ascertain its business position and recommended that Leal underwent managerial development in order to take on full leadership of the Agency, as per Miss Edouard’s last wishes. All of that meant that Leal would have less time to concentrate on working cases as an Agent which was when he realized what Director Port’s wicked scheme was.
Judging by the facts provided, Director Port was planning something huge and he needed Leal’s nose buried in other things in order to prevent the latter from catching on to what Port was planning. Leal immediately contacted his daughter at the DoD, Protector Avery Alison, to inform her of Port’s scheme so that Avery and the rest of the family remained vigilant to foil whatever evil plans the former Director intended for their Timeline. Avery thanked her father for the information but also informed him that a bizarre string of cases had began to crop up in D-1 which the DoD had began thoroughly investigating.
Mass psychogenic illnesses had been registered in several areas in the Magical Realm such as in Yadalle City, Mialand which had led to death in about 60% of the cases reported. Out of the remaining 40% cases, majority of the victims had to be put on a psychiatric hold with patients claiming that they did not exist or indicating that they were living on borrowed time. Most of the sufferers were found to have developed hypotension and typically displayed symptoms commonly experienced with temporary loss of consciousness (or Syncope) such as experiencing several unexplained fainting spells, dizziness, drowsiness among other strange phenomena.
“Could Port have anything to do with these strange occurrences? Perhaps these victims have found a way of pushing Port out of their Consciousness somehow and it has unfortunately led to these effects?” Leal proposed to Avery.
“Well, Port is undoubtedly the most powerful Cosmo1 that has ever existed but I doubt even he is capable of this kind of fete. This is something else altogether. Besides, Port’s M.O suggests he only targets specific individuals, usually so he can have enough power and influence to achieve his goals. Consciousness-wise, Port wouldn’t blindly cast a net. Besides, it appears that these cases are more heavily concentrated in certain areas in the Magical Realm which is what makes this whole thing all the more bizarre. We haven’t completely ruled out Port yet though,” Avery stated.
“If Port has nothing to do with this then are we possibly dealing with a greater existential threat?” Leal worriedly asked Avery.
“It would appear so, dad. Anyway, let’s not pre-empt anything. I say we get stone-cold evidence before making any conclusion,”
“You got it. I will assign my best agents on this,”
Avery thanked him and disconnected the call.
Leal went through another arduous day of managerial development and eagerly returned home. He found an unexpected guest at home interacting with Aurora and their children, Avery and Dewey Alison.
“Are you-um-” he began wondering how to ask the unexpected guest to confirm her identity.
Avery (D-3) smiled and nodded, standing up to greet her father with a firm handshake.
“Nice to finally meet you in person, Leal (D-1) or rather Leal (B-3),”
“The pleasure is all mine, um, Avery (D-3), I presume?”
Avery nodded. “That’s right! Nothing gets past you, detective Leal,”
“Isn’t this dangerous? Won’t your presence here like cause a time paradox or something?” Leal wandered aloud.
“I thought so too but Avery appears to be Temporally distinct enough that she can appear here without causing any catastrophic time paradoxes,” Aurora explained.
“Ah, I don’t get it but then again, I’m not the designated scientist of this household,”
Avery chuckled. “Don’t sell yourself short, Leal, you may not be a scientist but you are an exceptional detective,”
“I doubt it. I wasn’t able to apprehend Port in time like you asked me to,”
“That isn’t on you, dad. Port is a slippery Reality Warper. Capturing him will be no easy fete. However, we have bigger fish to fry, I’m afraid,”
“Does this have anything to do with the strange occurrences being investigated by the DoD here?”
Avery nodded. “The cause of all these cases is D-3. I have had Ash share the details of the cases with you and my doppelganger here. In fact, my Ada and Dewey are the ones who cracked the case in D-3 and they are presently trying to capture the perpetuator. Essentially, these cases are spilling over from D-3 as you’ll find majority of these victims’ doppelgangers were Erased from Reality by the Darkness. I suspect that the Darkness is attempting to consume even more of their Existence through the connection shared by all doppelgangers via the True Self,”
“What on Earth does the True Self even mean?”
“The True Self or a person’s Pure Consciousness is essentially everything anyone in this Reality has ever been or could ever become. That Pure Consciousness can be likened to a vast sea and doppelgangers are mere droplets in that vast sea. The droplets of the sea are all connected, you see…”
“I assume that the Darkness is attempting to take over the Erased True Selves which is why it has began to afflict the doppelgangers of the Erased, like when a foreign substance is introduced to that vast sea and slowly but surely continues to infect more of it. Because all doppelgangers are connected via their True Self, the Darkness can somewhat manipulate the doppelgangers of the Erased and attempt to spread to more of them until it inevitably takes over the entire vast sea. Furthermore, all True-Selves are connected via an even larger Consciousness- a Pure Universal Consciousness which is pure Spiritual Energy itself or our Creator Herself, if you will,”
Leal blinked several times in disbelief, his mind desperately trying to reconcile all his daughter’s doppelganger was telling him. It wasn’t too long before he began to feel very small and powerless.
“How do we even stop the Darkness? It seems too formidable. An entity that can influence even our Creator Herself- how can we possibly hope to defeat it?”
“The Darkness is a timeless Entity that has consumed countless Realities and Existences so I don’t blame you for feeling defeated. The best we can do is push back as much as we can because this Reality is our home; it is us- all of us- and we have to keep fighting, we have to rise above the Darkness until we cannot anymore. There is a way to fight back but it is going to take all of us to defeat it or at least as much of us as we can…”
“First, we must create awareness of the Darkness. We must acknowledge its power, recognize its absurd and ill-understood nature and realize that our struggle against it might ultimately prove futile but we must, nonetheless, go down fighting. Secondly, we must teach the world how to reach their True Selves such as by achieving Quantum jumping so that as many doppelgangers as possible are able to push back against the Darkness taking over…”
“Third, we must prevent the Darkness’ manifestations in our Reality and relegate it to remaining Non-existent as much as possible to stop its rapid spread. Our greatest fighting chance is through Reality Warpers who can not only positively impact their True Selves but can save this Reality from the mechanizations of the Darkness. We need to win as many as we can for our Reality’s cause and subdue as many as are against us,”
Leal smiled and nodded. “It’s hard to imagine that I raised you to be so intelligent and strong, Avery. I am astounded by your depth of knowledge,”
“Thank you Leal- I mean, thank you, dad,”
Leal opened his arms up for a hug and gladly embraced his daughter’s doppelganger.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Shall Reality actually triumph over the Darkness and win? What is Pheonix Port planning? Stay tuned to find out! Links to previous parts in this Saga are linked below!
Definition of terms:
- Cosmo: a powerful race of Telepaths with the power to psychically manipulate others to do their biding. Cosmos are usually ranked according to their telepathic capability with the highest rank being Level 1 who are able to subtly manipulate several others at once. The most powerful Cosmo that has ever existed in Baseline Reality is the Cosmo Rayan the third alias (former Director) Pheonix Port of the Department of Defense (DoD) in Timeline D-3 who could not only telepathically manipulate his victims but also has the ability to drastically alter and assimilate a person’s Consciousness.
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