Dragon's Claws #36

"Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:
Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none:
And some condemned for a fault alone."
- William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

He had arrived in the distant future, cast adrift in time by person or persons unknown and he had simply drifted until he had reached a random destination. The year was 18911, and he was far from where he had come from originally but the ravages of travelling through time had taken their toll on him. His body was thin and weak, almost skeletal in form and his hair had been lost through the travels. His face was so plea, his skin has lost all elasticity and he had virtually no discernible features. The people who found him had realised that he was human, and that he needed their help, for it was clear that his body was in poor shape.

As was his mind.

He knew neither his origin nor his name, only that he had come from the past, but when or where he did not know. He had been looked over by the greatest medical technicians of the era, and in time his body was restored to physical health, with many techniques involving reconstruction upon his facial features and the replacement of several major organs, and in the process they found out a great deal. He had the potential to manifest super-human abilities, as had most humans in this era, but he could not consciously access them and the medics could not say if he was homo sapiens superior, a mutant, or homo sapiens novo, an enhanced human, or homo sapiens mutation, a normal human somehow mutated. The telltale genetic markers that told what the human was were missing, all that was present was just a strange radiation that emanated from him that had no discernible source, but was simply there. It was a scientific oddity, but because he could not actively make use of the power within him, he simply let it go.

After he had been tested and reconditioned to the era, he was given the name Escalus and he was integrated to become part of the society. Information of the era, and recent history was downloaded easily in to his mind and he was assigned the role of archivist at the inter-planetary library, if only to try to bring forth lost memories. The Earth was the central planet of the Humanic Empire and was the little more than the revered home world of humanity. The people of Earth were spread across many galaxies, galaxies they had conquered or defeated as part of the usual territorial disagreements, or they were on worlds that their governments merged with, through trade sanctions or marriages in to off-world cultures. Where once humanity had been looked on with derision, they were now part of a larger universe, fulfilling a manifest destiny as guardians and peacekeepers throughout the known universe.

However when Escalus slept, he dreamt of things that were not quite as tolerant and calm as this. He saw wars, death and dying. He saw green and red lights clashing with each other, working towards a mutual destruction in a cycle that would not end. He saw wonders and violence unheard of in thousands and thousands of years and he knew that something was coming. As an archivist, he had constant access to information and he began to look in to his dreams, his visions. There were references to a force called the Green and it's defenders called the Pendragons, but the references all but dried up in the early parts of the twenty-first century and the information he obtained were but footnotes in the greater chronicles of the that time, but there were things that felt familiar, including a reference to a great barrier that had covered part of the northern hemisphere of Earth at the time of the First Great Invasion of Earth.

What became known as the Great Reconstruction was the first of the building blocks that had gone on to form the Humanic Empire, for the old ways, the old borders could not exist without blocking the rebuilding of the world and for the first time it had brought together a true coalition of races and leaders, working together for a greater good that was not personal. It had not lasted long, but it had lasted for some time, and it had showed what could be done, given the right circumstances, and Escalus knew he wanted to go and see something on Earth. He had to find what had been called Avalon, or at least Great Britain. The landmass itself had been lost when the ice caps had melted and the country was lost beneath the waves, but there was a floating city where it had been, a city the size of the original island and it sat on the waves as a reminder to what had been lost. The seas and oceans had become combined and merged and known as the Great Lake and Escalus had gone down to see what it was that drew him there.

The Britannic Isle was a bustling place, filled with cultural reminders and other historic items as well as the Darkmoor marker - where King Nathaniel had dissolved the last true kingdom and become the first head of the United Planet Earth. As Escalus ran his hand over the Darkmoor marker, he heard a whisper on the edge of his perceptions, a whisper than said one word - Pendragon. He recoiled, looking around to see if anyone else had heard this, but nobody had seemed to and the echo had gone. He touched the marker once more and the whisper returned.

"What do you want from me?" he muttered.

"Vengeance."

The answer plagued him and he returned home, wondering what was wrong and that night he slept, but his dreams were different and he dreamt of adventures, of people he had fought with and against, of what he had seen and lost and when he woke he knew that there was a war coming. A Time War, where the past, present and future were all in play. He didn't know how he knew this, but there would be opposing forces, most fighting for control of Time and a group defending it. Because things were as they were, perhaps they had succeeded, or perhaps none of this was happening, but he knew of the Time War and he knew the voice that called him was the voice of the Green, but there was an instinctive distrust of the Green.

Yet there was also a deep-seated hatred of the Bane, and of somewhere called Otherworld.

They had tried to use him again and he would not allow that but, deep down, he knew that it was something he could not escape, even flung in to the far, far future. Perhaps he was all that was left pawns of the great powers, but he swore that he would never be a pawn again and he promised himself never to return to the Britannic Isle.

To his credit, he tried to put things out of his head, but in the weeks that followed things came back to him, memories of events he had lived through, fought through. The Time War would keep things as they were, as they had been for centuries, he knew that. He also knew that unless something happened, the Green and the Bane would continue their conflict. This future was a future free of their influence and humanity had become all it could be. The Green and the Bane would hold it back. This future was the future it was supposed to be and, in his mind, he became aware of his true purpose. He had once been a servant of the Green, but he had been cast out in to Time and shown there was a better way, this way. He needed to fight in the Time War, to ensure the defeat of the Green and the Bane, to orchestrate the fall of Otherworld and cut off the meddling of the so-called powers that be. It would not be easy, but he would go back and sort it so that they were only footnotes in history, footnotes that were easily missed by the casual observer. He knew when the first battle of the Time War was supposed to be - what if he went back and started the events early, before either side was ready? He knew some things but there was a lot still missing, including his name, but it didn't matter. He had a name, Escalus, and the name Escalus had not been a part of the Time War he remembered.

He began to formulate a plan in his mind, a plan for which his 'real' self would be viewed as a traitor, but if he went back and ensured that his younger self would be cast adrift in time, then all this would happen. He would use the paradoxical nature of the Time War against them all, and bring in to conception the Humanic Empire.

The technology for time-travel was available, as it has been for many, many centuries, but the use of it was seriously regulated and it was next to impossible to get hold of the technology for the use of it for personal gain. However Escalus knew that the damage that had been done to Time, the events that had preceded the Time War. It was feasible that he could get hold of equipment to observe temporal phenomena and if he could find the right portal, a rip in time and space, he could go back. It would be a random re-emergence though, but perhaps there was something in the archive that could help, and he did his research and submitted the appropriate requests for what he was after and soon he had what he needed to start his plan. It was three months since the voice of the Green had come to him but he was ready. He had assembled a crude temporal navigator and if he walked in to one portal, he could possibly divert himself to another gateway. It was all down to how well he had done his job, but he had faith he would make it.

He had to, for if he failed then this world would not exist.

On the highlands of Scotland, there was a tear in the fabric of reality. Escalus appeared through the rip, and he smiled as he looked about.

"This is the place," he said. "The Time War begins..."

The rip behind him was starting to close; the stability of it disrupted by the technological adjustment and that was good for him. He threw his temporal device in to the rift and watched it disappear. It wasn't just to keep his presence here a secret, but he had programmed the device to help later. It would raw upon the temporal energy that remained and ensure he could open the rift as and when he needed. It was, in effect, creating him his own temporal corridor from here to the one place that was safe from the temporal effects - the Null Point.

From there he would be able to gather other allies, but for now he was on his own however that didn't mean he didn't know what to do. The first thing was to establish a base of operations and then find a way of taking Otherworld out of the equation, but he had brought several items of technology with him from the future. On the ground he laid several small pebbles and then pressed a light on a bracelet around his hand. The pebbles sank in to the ground leaving no trace at all of what had just happened, and Escalus knew that beneath the ground construction was beginning to occur and almost a miniature city was being formed, tapping in to underground pockets of geothermal energy for a power source and it would be hidden from the prying eyes of the world, but he would be able to view them. The next thing he wanted to do was to go and see the lay of the land, to find out just quite what was going on. The air here was different to the air he had left; there was more sulphur in the air.

He checked the bracelet and saw he had several hours because of the work being done and there was a small village not far from here. Of course he had none of the local currency, not yet, but he could get some. He needed to make sure of allies, of enemies, of those who might become a hindrance. As he walked from the place he was calling the Alpha Site, he realised how different things were now. The future had been so very technological, clean and tidy, but this place seemed to lack most conveniences. There were birds in the sky he had no idea of what they were and he could swear he had seen a unicorn in a field as he walked.

"Magic is the normal thing here," he began to understand. Science had been discarded or been lost. It seemed familiar, but it did not matter. He wandered, observing the sky and mountains and he saw that not far was a large body of water. He headed towards it and on the path at the side of the lake and he came across a sign that said 'Loch Leven. Kinlochleven 1 mile'. That was good to know and he knew that somewhere along the road he would run in to someone and he would discuss the monetary situation with them. It was about ten minutes later when he met a youngish man riding a two-wheeled vehicle. "A bicycle," he said and he flagged him down. "I'm sorry to disturb you," he said.

"Not at all," the man said. "How can I help?"

"I'm a bit lost. I was travelling with some people and I seem to have lost them somewhere. I don't suppose you've seen them?" The lies came easily to him and the man seemed to have no distrust of him.

"I'm sorry, I haven't," he said and he turned back to the direction he had come from. "I don't remember seeing anyone..." but while his back was turned, Escalus grabbed him and snapped his neck, letting him fall to the floor dead. Escalus searched the body and took his wallet and watch, then he pushed the body in to the water and dumped the bicycle alongside him. By the time anyone realised he was missing, Escalus would be far away from here, and he realised he would need to obtain a new identity. He contemplated things as he walked. While people would not know him, they would come to know the name of Escalus, and he would need something that allowed him to work uninterrupted and he chose the name of Simon Lucas, S Lucas being a slight anagram of Escalus, the E being silent when you pronounced the S. He thought it was clever enough and in the village he got himself a newspaper to see what was going on in the world.

It documented the rebuilding work being done now the Martians had been defeated, as well as information on King Adam Crown, who had been declared supreme rule of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, however there was a sense of unrest at his rule. It was claimed he was a descendant of King Arthur and because he held the fabled Sword in the Stone, he claimed his birthright, but not everyone believed he was the true king. There was a diminishing sense of democracy that not everyone agreed with. Crown was part of the heroes called the Pendragons, and they would all be present at an event in London that would honour those that had died and were missing in the aftermath of the Martian War. Everybody who was anybody would be there and Escalus knew it would be a good opportunity to view his enemies and made plans to head for London and attend. Getting there would not be easy, as transport and other technology had been made impotent by a massive electro-magnetic pulse, but there were still ways.

"A steam train?" he said in amusement. "How... quaint."

A few days later he was in London, having caught a train down. The Flying Scotsman service had been resumed and he had to admit there was a certain majesty to it. For someone who had been accustomed to instantaneous transportation devices, it was a much slower way, but he couldn’t help but respect it. However it was technology from the future that he had brought that would allow him to get in St Paul’s Cathedral. Psychic paper, a document that would project what the reader thought they should be seeing. That would be his credentials to gain a seat within the cathedral. He would be able to gain a seat up in the Whispering Gallery and look down and he was let through without a problem. He was early enough for the place to be very empty and he sat down, contemplating things. This was risky, but it gave him a certain thrill as well.

He watched as people took their seats and observed his potential enemies. Adam Crown took the front podium, and there were other dignitaries on the first rows, followed by the Pendragons and other heroes. He looked at them all and amongst them was a man that caused Escalus to sharply draw breath. He knew his identity at last, or at least his name and he smiled. He remembered the man’s life up to this point, some kind of quirky mental connection between them. What happened after was another matter, but he was here to change all that anyway. His eyes never left his younger self for a moment throughout the ceremony and he waited until everyone had left until he left the cathedral. He even walked past his other self, who was waiting outside with other heroes and friends and none of them knew there was an enemy in their midst, even though all of them were alert just in case there was an agent of the Bane or some other insidious foe waiting to ambush them all.

Now was not the time, there were preparations to be made first but he had been with those who were against him, who he knew he would come in to conflict with soon enough, but he wasn’t without preparations made while he was here.

Before he returned to the Alpha Site, he would instigate the first part of his plan and the Time War would begin in earnest…