Chojin Patriarch
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Oh, dear. This level of activity doesn't look good. Is Mags going to do something stupid? Because he's smart enough to know better... On the other hand, he's a man who's lost his whole family, and that doesn't make for the most stable or rational of decisions...8th November 2012
14:18 GMT +1
I look around Magnificus's repurposed workshop, my eyes skipping over the positron beam projectors that deployed in response to my arrival. In the middle distance I can hear the sound of a dozen welding torches working, knowing Magnificus on the end of multiple robotic arms.
I raise my right hand to my mouth.
Which means you need to talk all the more."Magnificus! You've been skipping your therapy sessions and I want to talk about it!"
"I don't need therapy! I need to work!"
I mean, it's not like you couldn't steamroll in and stop him the hard way... But that would do more damage to his psyche than being nice.
Making no sudden moves, of course. Just because you can't see the guns trained on you doesn't mean they're not there."Do what you like!"
I nod calmly, fold my arms behind my back and walk slowly in the direction of his shouts.
Any more blindingly clear observations to make, Ringnestro?Careful, Lantern Grayven. A man like Magificus Sivana should not be underestimated, even irrational as he is.
Yes, I know.
And that is why you're such a good boss. Also why your people actually like you.And yet you came yourself. Alone.
This is my responsibility. The buck stops with me.
Ah, the macho method of grief-displacement. Hit something until the pain in your hands hurts more than what's inside.Yes, and I'm glad that you realise that. What I mean is that you didn't send one of your many more empathetic employees. Or a pony. I may not see the appeal myself, but they appear to be of great comfort to emotionally wrought humans.
I don't think that's what he needs.
Classic styling. After all, presentation counts for a lot.At some part, the door to the electronics workshop has been… Removed? Torn off? Cannibalised for parts? Not sure. The point is that it's not there, and I get a clear view at the… Jetsons flying saucer thing that he's working on. Several hatches on the underside have been opened up, and two robot arms are spot welding… Additional modules that look like they're going to be mounted on the hull.
"Looks like it's going well."
Planning to go somewhere quieter, Mags? Or picking someone up?"Yes." Magnificus walks in, heavily reinforced canister of something under his left arm and a weirdly glowing pistol in his right hand. "It's nearly complete. Once I add the suspendium and mount the time drive modules, I'll be gone."
"So it is a time machine, then?"
Right. He's not in the mood to be crowded right now."I spend my eighth birthday in the Sulurian era, making fish with bony jaws to confuse future paleontologist. I may just be copying Father's work, but at least I'm doing something-." His pistol snaps up, pointed precisely at my face. "Stay back!"
I nod, raising my hands and planting my right foot firmly back on the ground.
Of course, since time travel is involved, that's not departure time he's asking about, but the destination."There's nothing you can do to stop me."
I nod again. "When are you planning to go?"
And that's going to be a very small window of opportunity."Before they die. Turret mode." He releases the pistol, and its grip unfolds into an anti-gravity flotation device. "Before any of them die. I'm not going to be the last Sivana."
"Alright, but the Sheeda destroyed your family's holiday home during your annual family get-together. It wouldn't have done that if they weren't there. You'll needs to get them out between it hitting something vital the place disintegrating."
A gravity-shielding emitter of some kind, no doubt. Perfect for resisting the Huntsman's attraction."I know that! I don't need you-! I don't need you trying to explain temporal manipulation to me."
He crouches, laying the temporal manipulation module down on the floor and picking a panel up from the floor. That gets moved to one of the saucer's lower hatches, then he reaches inside and starts connecting the interior cables to the panel's sockets.
Pretty painfully, too. Not much left afterwards."And then, when Mom and Thaddeus and my sisters are safe, we can go and pick up father. And then-. And then we'll be fine again."
"I saw your father die, Magnificus."
To be fair... Survivor's Guilt is a thing... And Mags, well..."A hologram. Or if it wasn't the first time, it will be after we've changed things."
"Magnificus, I'm a New God. I know when a living person is sacrificing themselves for-."
Because sometimes, you need to see the life in their eyes fade, to know they're gone, to feel satisfied with vengeance..."MY FATHER WAS FOUR FOOT FIVE! HE HAD ARMS LIKE PIPECLEANERS! WHY THE HELL WAS HE ANYWHERE NEAR THE SHEEDA!"
He stopped working while he shouted, but I watch him take a claming breath and rededicate himself to his work.
Would you be thinking rationally, with all the anger Thaddeus Senior had built up?"Because he wanted to kill her himself, I imagine."
"He was a scientist and mechanist. If he-." Magnificus sniffs. "If he wanted to kill her, he could do it with an army of super robots."
Because he thought you were old enough not to need him. And apparently he was wrong.I nod slowly. "Probably. So why do you think he-?"
"He didn't want to live anymore. With the others-. Others dead, he didn't want to stay alive himself." He slumps, his hands dropping to the floor. "I needed him. Why wasn't I enough?"
Because he knew what you are probably about to learn..."I don't know, Magnificus. I'd… Guess that he… Thought you could cope without him, but that I might make a mess of things if he wasn't there in person."
"He could do this more easily than I can? Why isn't-? Oh-."
No doubt hoping it can be easily replicated? It'd be a boon for archaeology and palaeontology...He thrusts his hands into the hole in the saucer, then makes the final connections and slots the panel into place.
"Is this machine your own work?"
And they'd had it for a long time. Even if they didn't completely comprehend how it worked, they knew how to abuse it..."No. I just renovated it. I never-. I mean, it's a time machine. I understand how it works, but I don't-. There's nothing… Until now, there hasn't been anything that I've wanted a time machine to do."
"Magnificus, you do know that the Sheeda had time travel technology too?"
Thaddeus Senior was an extremely smart man, Maggy. If he didn't do something, there was probably a good reason."Yes, of course." Another panel gets the same treatment, only slightly faster. "I was listening when father explained where he went."
"He didn't try this. Do you think he just overlooked it?"
Last chance to talk him down, Renegade..."I don't know why he did it!"
He closes the panel and plugs in the suspendium module before moving around to the near side.
It'll hurt, but you'll understand, Maggy. And if you want to do something else afterwards... Then the Renegade will understand that."I don't know why he didn't try this, I wasn't in-. I wasn't in any state to ask him, but I'm going to try, and you're not going to stop me."
I nod slowly. "You're right. I won't. I hope that you're successful, Magnificus. Your mother and your twin seemed like good people, and I'm sure the younger two grow on you." I cautiously hold out my right hand as the drone gun hums unhappily.
We can but hope it'll be in a happier mood, but we all know better...He plugs in the second module, reaching inside to press a button and then turns back to me as the saucer activates. He watches me for a moment or two, then walks closer and takes my hand.
"I'll be back."
Well, Maggy? Happy now?Then he lets go, climbs into the saucer and with a shimmer of light the saucer's gone.
And then it's back, panels torn away and smoke rising from the interior! I lunge forward, grabbing the dome and tearing it off before reaching inside and heaving Magnificus clear! He's beaten and bloody and the one eye that isn't swollen shut isn't focusing properly. I take a firm grip and then run from the workshop as the suspendium modules go critical and something very strange and organic-unfriendly happens to the saucer.
I know it hurts, Mags, but just remember, you aren't alone.I prop Magnificus up against a wall, purple healing ray out and firing at his face. He's a Danner enhancile so he shouldn't need it, but I don't want to take chances. After a moment he stirs, his eye focusing on me.
"Why? Why can't I-?"
I sit down next to him and wrap my right arm around his shoulders.
A grim day for the Sivana family. But, perhaps, a turning point for Magnificus. Maybe he can find the strength to stop looking back, and turn his attention to the future. Because if he can't... Then the Sivana family may well fade from history entirely. This is pretty much his lowest point, and though he probably can't see it right now, there's always a way to climb back out of the hole.
A comma here might improve the flow of this sentence...
"I spend my eighth birthday in the Silurian era...
...between it hitting something vital and the place disintegrating."...between it hitting something vital the place disintegrating."
...but I watch him take a calming breath and rededicate himself to his work....but I watch him take a claming breath and rededicate himself to his work.