“Then she must be dead,” Kari said. “No matter what she did in the end, it
doesn’t make up for what she’s done in the past. There are still a lot of worlds out there that she could have touched and tainted. It’s going to take a lot of work to undo the damage she’s done.”
Gabriel nodded. It seemed like an important and worthy job for his newfound
friends.
“Marce was right,” Kari said quietly to herself. “The sacrifice of a Heretic we met in our travels stopped Cain’s flood of darkness spreading across the universe.
Strange that it should be the same one that was spreading the darkness to begin with.”
“Hey sis, c’mere a sec,” Michael said, grabbing onto the tip of one of her foxlike ears and yanking it gently.
“Stop it,” Kari cried as she allowed herself to be pulled aside by her brother.
“You know I hate that! Let go!”
The twins forced Kari into a huddle and they began debating in fierce tones that were too low for Gabriel to hear. Whatever they were discussing, Kari seemed to be unable to convince the boys that her side was the better. Whether or not she actually won the argument, the twins would lose either way. Arguing with a woman was like trying to jump into a lake without getting wet, completely futile. Even when you win, you still lose.
At last a decision was made and the three of them turned back to Gabriel and
Sam.
“So, we were thinking,” Jonathan said.
“A new experience for us,” Michael added, drawing a disgusted look from his
sister.
“I hate when they finish each other’s sentences like this,” Kari muttered. “So annoying!”
“Well, as we were saying, you’re great in a fight, for a human.”
“And your crazy idea worked beautifully here. Not to mention that you seem to understand what computer girl over there is saying when we don’t have a clue most of the time.”
“And we’re wondering if whatever other great ideas there might be floating
around in your head might not come in handy sometime in the future.”
“So we were wondering if you’d like to come with us,” they said together.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Kari said in a resigned tone. Apparently she’d been the one arguing against the invitation. “We don’t know how many worlds that the Apostle has visited, or how long she’s been visiting them. We need to find them and try to undo any damage she might have done. Cain can’t be allowed to keep even a minimal amount of power outside of his prison.”
“No,” Sam growled. “He’s staying here with me! We’re gonna be married, and
have about fifty or so kids, and live happily ever after, damn it! We’ve earned it after all we’ve been through!”
Gabriel blinked at her.
“If I might,” Allie said, raising a hand for attention.
Gabriel nodded.
“You no longer belong in this world,” Allie said to Sam, including Mister Mittens with a nod. “Your NVM was a result of the radiation, which never poisoned this world, so you’re likely the only one in the entire world that has a tail and animal ears.”
“So what,” Sam asked defensively, clinging to Gabriel’s arm.
“So, now you belong here as much as I do,” Gabriel sighed, thrusting his hands into his pockets. “You can’t stay here but I don’t know if I can take you with me if I leave.”
“You can’t,” Michael said. “Each of these pendants only works for one person.”
There was something in Gabriel’s pocket. He felt it with his hand and his eyes popped. It couldn’t be! He wasn’t that lucky.
“Then we’ll stay out here, and build a house in a place where no people ever go,”
Sam said, looking pleadingly at Gabriel. “We don’t need anyone else! We’ve got each other, right? Right!”
Gabriel pulled his hand out of his pocket and grinned widely at what he found.
“Or maybe you could come with us.”
In his hand was another purple crystal on a leather cord, and a small leather collar with a purple crystal dangling from it.
Everyone stared at the collar and necklace in his hand.
“You mean, with that I could go with you? And Mittens too?”
“That’s Mister Mittens,” the cat said as if by rote, but his heart didn’t seem in it.
“That you can,” Gabriel held the crystals out to her. “I can’t go home to my
world, and you can’t stay in yours. What do you say we find a new one together where we can both be happy?”
Reaching for them hesitantly, Sam looked up at the sky.
“We fixed the sun,” she said after a long pause. “We fixed the radiation. The world is the way it should have been without the Spires of Infinity to mess it up. I wanna see my own world now, and see what it’s like. I wanna see the way things coulda been, the way things shoulda been. We got everything fixed, and you just wanna leave without even seeing what you did?”
Looking to her brothers for a second, Kari stepped forward, offering her hand.
“The two of us got off to a bad start. How about we start again like we just met.”
Sam eyed the hand suspiciously, but took it and nodded reluctantly, shooting a look at Gabriel that was oozing with jealousy.
“As for seeing your world,” Kari said. “We’ve been chasing after the Apostle for a pretty long time. I think it’s time for a well-deserved break. We all need time to recover from recent events, I think. How about a little sight seeing before we leave?
This looks like a beautiful place, and I’d like to see more of it. I’ve never seen a sky so spectacular.”
“I think that’s the best idea you’ve had in a long time, sis,” Jonathan grinned widely showing his bestial teeth.
Considering for a long moment, Sam hesitantly took the crystals from Gabriel's hand, placing the necklace around her neck and the collar around Mister Mittens’.
Turning away from everyone, she looked at the sky for a very long time, as if trying to make it stick in her memory forever.
Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly, and Gabriel could see how truly hard the decision was in the way she held herself. “All right. Let’s do it. I wanna see my world the way it shoulda been, and then we can go chasing after the Apostle’s back trail.
There were legends and stories of other worlds than this one, but I never actually thought I was gonna see any of them. I dunno how much help I’ll be, but I’ll do my best.”
“And of course,” Mister Mittens said. “You’ll want my considerable intellect at your disposal.”
“Cat sure is full of himself,” Jonathan muttered just loud enough to be heard.
“Aren’t they all,” Michael replied.
Mister Mittens seemed to wilt a bit, but then appeared to decide he was better off ignoring much of what the twins said.
Gabriel removed one of his gunbelts, the one with the holster on the left side, and handed it to Sam. “I think this belongs to you, my dear.”
“Why thank you, oh husband to be,” Sam said as she buckled it on and tied the
rawhide cord around her thigh to hold it in place.
“I can’t wait,” Allie said with a big grin. “I’ve been trapped in this place for so long, all I ever wanted to do was run free and live my life.”
“I think this is the beginning of a great adventure,” Gabriel said, grinning broadly.
He’d never considered that he’d be traveling the universe just like his childhood hero, or that he’d have a companion to share it all with. Life was good. He could make a new life for himself, stepping out into the unknown. He realized that he had no desire whatsoever to return to his old life back on Earth. The path before him was far too interesting, and he still had a long way to go in order to atone for the sins of his stupidity and arrogance. At least he had friends and a girl that he loved to help him along the way. He supposed that for all the confusion and frustration that came with women and their seeming insanity, he’d finally found one he loved enough that none of it mattered much in the end.