Praetorian Series [4] All Roads Lead to Rome (47 page)

I stiffened, sick of any mention of alternate worlds.  “He’s not the only one you need to apologize to.”

“I’d already begged for her forgiveness before you arrived.”

I nodded but didn’t respond.  I’d meant that he should apologize to
me
, but was at least glad Helena had found some closure as well.  I wondered if there had been more to Tim’s apology that had sent Helena into her introspective stupor, but Tim didn’t give me long to ponder as he grabbed me by the shoulder and led me from the room.  Before we left, I turned to look over my shoulder and saw Helena finally move toward Jacob, but we were gone before I saw anything else.

Turning away, I fell into step with Tim as he led me from the room, and walked silently with him to the Atrium.  The others were still there, and Jeanne and Madrina had returned as well, the pair appearing refreshed and happy, their large frames dominating the large room even though most of the others were all of substantial size as well.  John, James, Jeanne, Alex, TJ, Georgia, Gaius, Titus, Madrina, and Archer all turned, lifted heads, or stood at our arrival, some clearly on edge, others weary of a life with no direction or answers, but each of them were attentive and ready for whatever came next.  I had to imagine Tim had come here for more than a simple apology, so if he was prepared to say something of any kind of importance, now was the time to say it.

Luckily, he seemed to have come prepared.

“None of you are special,” he said, bluntly enough.  “Not you Paul Archer,” he said, turning to the tall blonde man who sulked near the corner, “nor you Johnathon Santino,” he said, turning now to face John, who pointed at his chest innocently with a frown on his face, “nor you, Diana “Artie” Hunter,” he finished, finally turning his dark eyes on me.  I tried to stare him down but failed completely, and looked at the floor. 

Tim sighed, but then continued.  “Nor is Jacob Hunter.  In fact, very few people are what I would consider ‘special.’  Unique?  In a way.  Worthy of great things?  Perhaps.  But none of you were brought here for a reason and none of you were destined for this.  You are all simply hapless fools who wandered into a situation so far beyond your understanding that you are perhaps the unluckiest group of individuals to have ever graced the cosmos.  And yet, none of you are as unlucky as your friend in that room back there.”

He paused again, but I couldn’t imagine that he needed a moment to measure his thoughts.

“He’s been through more than you can ever imagine,” he continued.  “You’re all soldiers, elite warriors from a number of backgrounds, proud individuals who conquered countless endeavors to become who you are, but none of that suffering, not all of it combined even, could ever hope to measure against what Jacob experienced in the last few weeks, let alone since he set out from Britain.  He deserves your sympathy.  He deserves your sadness.  But what he needs is your support.  For all his misfortune, he is lucky to have the few of you who never gave up on him, never entertained the idea of abandoning him.  He needs that now.  I can never ask you to forgive what he did to Vincent or for allying himself with Agrippina, but it was the orb’s influence that drove him to those acts, and it was I who placed that orb in his hand.  Do not blame him.  Blame me if…”

“Enough with the speech, mate,” James interrupted, taking a step forward and jamming a finger in Tim’s direction.  “If this whole bloody mess really is your fault, what’s to stop us from taking justice right here and now for Vincent?”

Jeanne stepped forward next.  “What kind of careless individual would do what you did?  Give such power to children…”

Georgia was next to say something, apparently too distracted with her own frustrations to realize she’d interrupted Jeanne.  “I thought my home was bad!  Now we have to deal with an egomaniacal god with all the power in the…”

It was at that point that the room burst into chaos, arguments and discussions popping up between individuals or small groups, everyone speaking and shouting over one another.  Everyone had a different idea of what we should do now or who was responsible for what, and no two theories coincided.  Jeanne and Madrina wanted to go back to Gaul while Titus demanded, as James had just suggested, justice for his father.  TJ and Georgia found something to argue about and John jumped in against them both, while Gaius argued with the normally calm Alex about something I couldn’t even understand.  And so on.  Only Archer and I kept aloof from the conversation, myself too confused to develop an argument of my own while he probably thought no one would listen to him.

I glanced at him then, my eyes panning over his handsome face, a face I’d once thought the world of but could now barely even glance at without feeling sick to my stomach.  At least, that’s how I’d felt long ago, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to hate him anymore for what he’d done.  I would never forgive him for what he did to Jacob, and I had no idea what Jacob would do once he figured it out himself, but Archer seemed completely apologetic and had taken steps to atone for his misdeeds, and I had to respect that.

I turned back to the squalor around me, knowing I should say something, but I had no idea what to say.  All I could think to do was turn to back Tim.  “What was the point of all this?  Of any of this?  What didn’t Merlin tell Jacob when you sent him in search of the orb?”

Tim took a deep breath.  “We showed him many things, most of them an accurate reflection of reality, but not…”

“Why not?”

“We needed him to search for the orb, and we didn’t think he would have gone had he known the truth about what he would find.”

“But why tell him anything at all?”  I demanded, my loud tone barely carrying over the din of argument in the room.

“Once,” he started slowly, reluctantly, “not all that long ago, there was a pristine, unblemished, completely unique timeline.  It was the only timeline, of all the infinite timelines, to contain the orbs.  In that one, prime timeline, the orbs had been given to the twins, the twins had lost them, time had passed, and no one ever found them… until Jacob did.  The result was akin to an enormous rock being thrown onto the icy plane of the Multiverse, creating cracks in the universe, spinning out new timelines with new futures just ripe for the taking.  Orbs were duplicated, alternate versions of the prime timeline were created, and Remus had his way out.  Remus could have escaped his prison as soon as Agrippina had brought him an orb, but they would have been unable to use them in tandem as Jacob is able.  However, it was completely possible that Agrippina might have found someone else capable of using the red and blue orb and tricking them into working for Remus.  I could not allow that to happen.”

“But how did you even know Agrippina had the red orb?  How did you know she could even use it?  I didn’t even know until just now!”

“Because she had the red orb the whole time,” Tim said.  “She had it in Britain, secretly, using its energy to temporarily lift the strain from Jacob until she was in the perfect position to reintroduce the blue orb.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

He shrugged.  “Merlin knew both orbs were near well before Jacob entered his cottage.  He simply deduced his conclusions from Jacob’s memories, and I interpreted the rest from what I have recently experienced.”

“But Jacob only went insane after Helena lost the baby,” I said, not understanding fully.  “How could Agrippina bring the red orb back to Rome with Jacob?  He never would have gone if he hadn’t been affected by the blue.”

“She’s been planning this with Remus for over a year,” Tim said.  “I too have learned much this past fortnight.  She must have sent the red orb on ahead with a number of her Praetorians, always keeping it one step ahead of them so that Jacob was always alone with the blue orb.”

“But…” I searched for more questions.  They came to me so easily that they were difficult to prioritize, “…but why involve Jacob at all?  Agrippina must have known we’d try and find him.  She knows Helena.  She knows how determined she would be to get Jacob back.  She must have known we’d be trouble eventually.  Why risk it?  Why not find that person who could also operate both orbs?”

“The genetic trait to operate either orb alone is very uncommon, possessing both is even rarer. She may never have found an individual she could use, and… Remus is a very impatient.”

“Well…” I sighed, nearly at the end of my wits.  “Well… why not deal with Agrippina and Remus yourself?”

“I couldn’t.  Merlin explained to Jacob that he was unable to ever step foot in Rome again, but not why.  You see, Merlin is still imprisoned in Britain, at the behest of Romulus who never forgave us for doing what we did to Remus.  He’d always understood our reasoning but had never condoned the action.  I will avoid specific details to keep this explanation concise, as you are unfamiliar with the lore.”

Realization hit me like a brick.  “You… Merlin had this all planned from the beginning.  Merlin manipulated Jacob into finding the red orb, knowing Remus would use him to escape and then seek revenge on you and his brother.  He knew his younger self, Faustulus, would come into contact with the orb at some point, so he set it up so that when Faustulus made contact with it, Merlin’s memory would be downloaded into him.  He created Tim on purpose so that you could help us now!”

He nodded.  “I knew you were at least as sharp as Jacob, probably sharper.”

“But… you’ve changed your own history, your destiny.”

“No such thing,” Tim said, “but things like this tend to happen when one interferes with
time
.”

“Says the man who gave the ability to manipulate it to a pair of spoiled brats.”

“You’re not wrong.”

I took in a deep breath, held it, and then let it out slowly.  “So, I assume you’re here to help us then.”

“You assume correctly.”

“How?”

Tim turned to face me and a small smile formed on his lips.  “What is it you and your friends seem to so often lack?”

I chuckled, an answer coming immediately.  “A plan, probably.”

“Exactly,” he said with a wink.

I rolled my eyes.  “And that plan is…?”

“Sacrifice.”

Tim hadn’t said it.  No one else in the room had said it.  But it had caused conversations to cease and heads to turn almost immediately.  Everyone seemed to be looking at me, but then I realized they were looking past me.  I whirled around and was amazed to see Jacob standing there, supported heavily by Helena.  He was breathing deeply, as though the short walk or simple statement had fatigued him greatly.  I blinked at the sight of them, surprised at their presence and the simple novelty of seeing the two of them together again, but was immediately happy for the image.

The silence lingered.  Feet shuffled, people breathed, and the vacuous stillness in the room was so deep I could practically hear each of them blinking.  I hated it, because I knew some of it was because they still didn’t trust him.  But I trusted him.  I couldn’t help it.

I took a step toward him and smiled weakly.  “Hi.”

It was all I could think to say.

Jacob cracked a smile, a weak but earnest one, and I could see a fleeting glimpse of the man he used to be in that simple expression.  “Hi, Artie,” he said, his voice hoarse.  “Thanks for holding down the fort.”

***

The smile that spread across Artie’s face was the biggest I’d ever seen on her.  It would have brought an even bigger smile to my own, but smiling hurt too damn much.  Everything hurt too damn much.  I’d never felt so much discomfort before, so concentrated and layered and extensive.  Nothing had prepared me for the hell I’d just gone through.  Nothing ever could have.

I could still vaguely remember Artie and Santino showing up to save me in the past, but the more vivid image was Artie ripping the orb from my grasp and rushing from the room with it.  When the pain had hit me, I’d wanted to kill her, and the only thing that had kept me going had been thoughts of vengeance and retribution.  But I’d had a lot of time to think, blurry, weary, and unfocused though that thinking may have been, and eventually understood why she’d done it.  I was still unsure how the events of that day had occurred, nor did I fully understand how or why Merlin was here now, but I’d had more than enough time for self-reflection, and if there was one thing I’d come to understand, it was that my soul was shattered.  I’d never be the person I’d been before, and no amount of support from Artie or Helena or any of the others would change that.

Helena…

If not for Helena, I might have killed myself right then and there after Merlin had come to apologize earlier, but, like always, she’d been there for me.  I’d never deserved her love and dedication, but never more so than now, yet still she’d been there.  She’d simply been there, only a few minutes ago, exactly when I’d needed her…

***

…I was only vaguely aware that Merlin had left the room with Artie in tow.  I was also only vaguely aware that he’d been in this tiny prison cell with me at all.  I still wasn’t sure he hadn’t been just another illusion or another hallucination, because nothing about anything made sense anymore.  The last thing I remembered was being trapped in the past, battered and broken and left to die by Remus, only to wake up here, momentarily cognizant before being thrust into a world of pain and left to rot by those I’d considered my friends.