~ two

~ as Selene wanders the gardens ~

Doe - "Hey.  You know I invented the wheel ?"

Selene - "What ?"

Doe - "It's true.  They say it happened a lot of places at once, but I was really the first."

Selene - "Like ... really really ?  This is a land of gods ... is there ... like a god for that ?"

Doe - "Nah.  Just a really good idea."  Smiles, "I've got four of them now, wanna go for a ride ?  Just in time for the rally."

Selene - A laugh in wide eyes and a bit of confusion before a smile, "Okay."

They enter the workshop and it's brass tubed hotrod of a steam powered thing, he hands her the goggles with a smile.  Lights the fuse and a pipe to wait, the engine fires and the steam begins to pour.

The car tears off, and through the paths of the land, use your imagination.  It's all there until an open field, with many other likewise vehicles converging toward a distant train from every part of the woods.

Onboard the train, the passengers grimly load their old rifles in anticipation, song volume lowers (2:50).

Doe - "It's a train that passes through out world between two others without letting anyone else get on."  Looks to her with a smile, "Which we find rude."

Selene - Smiles ahead, "Train."

Doe smiles ahead with, "Train." 

Volume up, he accelerates hard to join the pack as the train's passengers open fire.  Heavier rollers fire their grappling hooks and tree beams to start pulling individual cars from the line and track.

Doe - Lines up the car to one less gunned and more scarred, grins over at the top goes down (he invented the convertible), "And also, they're rich.  Do me a favor and take the wheel a sec, I'll be right back."

Selene - "What !?"

He ejects and lands on the roof while she struggles over to his seat and looks over the crazy steam pressure controls and grips the wheel.  Looks up to the windows and there he is, gun drawn holding up some frightened Victorians ...

She looks ahead and maintains control amid the chaos, swerving around another car flipped by its own grapple into a wreck.  Doe jumps to the other seat with filled bags.

Doe - Pops the secondary controls on his side, "And now we're rich too."  Takes control, "You're good.  Now let's get the fuck out of here and eat some cake."

They pull away from the rest just as a car is toppled from the track, taking all those behind it, converged upon.
________

Magistrate - "We are aware of the universes collapsing through time, it's very hard to miss.  And without it we will cease to have meaning."

A look to Asherah, she nods back.

Magistrate - "What have you got to trade ?"

Selene - Walking in with Doe, clothes disheveled and hair a sideways mess, "One seat on the ship.  For him."  Clears her throat and looks away, "We're in love now."

Magistrate - Staring in recognition, "It's you."

Selene - A bit confused, then forcing to confidence.  "Yes.  It's me."  Faux aloof, "I require him."

...

Asherah - "It must be them and they need to be.  They'll need it."  A hand to his, "It was never ours, just borrowed time so brief, but I have adored it."

Magistrate - A long look into her confident eyes, and smile of assurance.  "I was so fortunate to know you.  To have lived these many lives beyond my age."  Into the kiss, "So until we are another way."

Still kissing her, he slides the book suddenly across to Doe.  The world shakes as he puts a hand down to stop its skid reflexively.

He looks at Selene confused ... she looks back playing confident but eyes telling him she's got no fucking clue.

Doe - "Um."  Then boldly, "Thank you.  I ... will read this book."

Asherah - Smiles away from the magistrate's lips, "It's for naming things."

He picks it up to another quake of the world, the residents now aging away, the Magistrate and Asherah walk out with, the sky now filling with the aberration.  Deep within it, Caldera smiles.

...

Magistrate - "Our world was always just a tale, you will be the universe now." 

Asherah - Looks to Selene knowing, "We will give you what advantage we can.  Survive."
____

As the board the Decibel and prepare.

Magistrate - A look after Doe, a laugh to Asherah.  "The machinery lad."  A smile back and they look to the sky.  Already visibly aging, he draws the sword.

Asherah begins growing as vines around him, then into a tree as they become one, growing massive in his image, his sword tall as a redwood.  

 

The spider does a strange jutting side to side dance behind Caldera waiting, the cut on her face from Charon freshly bleeding.

 

Hard thrust through the middle of the cloud, it eats away at them, but constantly regrowing to fill in.  Swing after swing hacking through to Caldera, who waves it off with her wand streaming their destruction.

The ship launches once again to flee, Caldera watches with a smile then returns attention the this massive thing attacking.  It pushes harder and harder through, sapping the land and burning away its form until only the Magistrates final strike in life, halving her wand.

And then they're as the ship jumps away.

The Decibel explodes again into the slipstream, the ever encroaching storm behind, to credits on black.