A Rescue, and A Warning

[Jay Omega]

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"When you're drowning you don't think, 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would notice I'm drowning and come and rescue me.' You just scream."
-John Lennon
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Brig of Xyklosan Warship W.X.H. Bestial*, Fennyllarris System, Carina Arm
Fifth Day of Captivity
Fourteenth Session of Torture(estimated)
(*=Where applicable, all alien languages translated to English approximations for your convenience)

~To say that pain was an old friend would be both an undesrtatement, and an inaccuracy. While the varied sensations of physical torment were certainly not novel experiences for Jay Omega, neither were they exactly welcome. To make matters worse - worse than the actual torture, of course - was the fact that his captors had no interest in any information he may or may not have; this wasn't an interrogation, after all. While responding to a distress call in the supposedly uninhabited Fennyllarris star system, Omega's starship - the I.S.V. Khybaris - had been ambushed, and his crew taken captive by a scouting party from the Xyklosan Hegemony. Fennyllarris was just within the territory claimed by the Hegemony, and the presence of the Khybaris had been declared a military provocation. Since the Xyklosan Hegemony was in a constant state of war, the crew of the Khybaris had summarily been declared war criminals, and sentenced to death by experimentation; the Hegemony wasn't known for compassion.

  Cruelty, on the other hand, was a Xyklosan export specialty, surpassed only by their penchant for subjugation. Which is how it was that Jay Omega found himself helpless, buck naked, and hanging by the ankles, while a sandy brown creature resembling a seven foot tall quadrupedal lump of chewed bubblegum approached him bearing a surgical tool that looked like a cross between a scalpel and a soldering iron. Having already been on the wrong end of the thing a few times during his stay, Omega knew it would not only slice through his flesh with ease, but would also immediately cauterize any wounds it made; preventing death from blood loss, but also preventing any measure of healing. As things stood, there were already a few charred sections of Jay's torso where the Xyklosan glorping toward him had excised several layers of tissue for testing purposes.

  Through the haze of unceasing agony that had become his life, two separate pieces of Omega's psyche warred deep within his mind. One piece - small and tired - plaintively insisted they just give in. It had been at least five days since their capture, and though he was no pushover, the Omega Man certainly wasn't the most powerful member of the Khybaris crew; if none of the others had managed to escape containment, then the chances that Jay would would manage to get free came in two sizes, fat and slim. There was some sort of dampening field negating their density manipulation power and blocking their cybernetic connection with Erin and the Suit, they had no idea where Tasha and the rest of the crew were being held - or if any of them were even still alive - didn't have the first clue how to find the hangar bay where the Khybaris might not even be, and furthermore, they were hanging upside down, naked, about to be carved liked a Thanksgiving turkey.

  The other piece of Jay's psyche - far stronger, though just as tired - told the pitiful whiner to shut up for what seemed the hundred thousandth time, and continued his mad scramble to douse the electric blue fires that flared here and there, all while trying to hold back what seemed to be an overwhelming wave of darkness. Sure, this situation wasn't ideal, but it wasn't the roughest spot they'd ever been in, and there was no sense in giving up before the fight was done. Tasha was alive at least; the Darrikaan marriage ceremony they had gone through turned out to have a mildly surprising effect on human physiology, and the pair of interstellar lovers were now dimly aware of each other's presence and emotional state, regardless of distance. So long as that little knot of emotion remained in the back of his mind - represented here as an amethyst polyhedron crystal containing a soft golden glow - Omega knew his beloved still lived, and he would be damned if he was going to give up on her, or any of the others.

  The quiet voice - the weak one - went over the litany of insurmountable obstacles they faced once more, and suggested his counterpart cease the futile attempt to soothe the ravaged nerve endings flaring up around them, and just allow the blessedly cold wave of darkness wash over them. The stronger voice didn't respond directly, instead redoubling his efforts, and humming a familiar tune about dancing with death under his nonexistent breath. It was with some genuine surprise that the weaker of the two voices noticed his counterpart actually making headway, or so it appeared at first. Understanding clicked into place; Time was slowing down. This realization brought its own brand of confusion; who - or what - was causing it? The two separate aspects of the Omega Man came together, and in the room where his bruised and battered body hung, Jay Omega opened his eyes.

  The Xyklosan combat medic stood uncomfortably close to him, and unnaturally still. The appendage gripping the soldering scalpel was outstretched toward Jay, the burning blade held scant centimeters away from Omega's inner thigh. Behind the frozen, sadistic, militant extraterrestrial, the air began to warp and ripple like a heat mirage, until reality itself split open. A ten foot storm of rainbow hued cosmic energy rotated counterclockwise in a perfect circle, while a slit extended from the bright center to create a curved opening, through which stepped a man who was intimately familiar to Jay; himself. Or rather, an alternate version of himself, this one evidently from the future judging by the weathered skin, the graying hair, and the mottled green/black cybernetic replacements where his right arm and leg should be. The older Omega Man surveyed the situation, and nodded to himself in satisfaction.

  "Maybe a little closer than I'd like, no pun intended, but all in all, I'd say that's a perfectly timed jump." The older Omega said, bringing a croaking grunt from the inverted, youthful one. His throat raw and ragged from hours of screaming, the junior of the Jays tried to speak, coughed weakly, and tried again. "Says you. Few days ago would'a been better." With a playful smile, the older Omega shrugged and turned back to the still swirling portal. "Hey, if you want, I can come back in a half hour, once he's finished cutting your fucking leg off." The cyborg rapped metallic knuckles against the equally armored prosthetic leg in emphasis, causing the younger man to call after him. "You're right, I'm sorry. Now would you please cut me loose?" Using his cybernetic arm, the Xyklosan was pushed to the side with ease; the being coming to a dead stop in mid air the moment Omega's hand broke contact. Said hand then split down a line between the ring and middle fingers and pulled apart, the two pieces folding back into the wrist as they separated.

  From within the mechanical limb extended the barrel of a large energy weapon, which Omega braced with his flesh hand. The cyborg took careful aim at the shackles his younger self was hanging from, and told the present day Jay to prepare himself. An emerald beam of superheated plasma lanced from the aperture in Omega's arm, and turned the length of chain holding Jay to the ceiling into a stream of molten metal that refused to move through the air. Though he was expecting the short drop, Jay still tumbled to the deck plating in an unceremonious heap. He took only a moment to allow his aching muscles some semblance of rest before forcing himself back upright, and looked his doppelganger in the eye. "All right, Robo-Me, what's the deal? The Director need our help with another case of crabs, or is this a social call?" The elder of the two shook his head, and ran his left hand through graying hair.

  "Nah, nothing as simple as that. With the help of my team, I've time traveled in order to help you change the future. Your future." The junior Jay held up a hand, a objection clear on his face. "Slow your roll, Kemosabe; we both know damn well time travel doesn't work that way." Having expected the interruption, the elder Omega nodded in concession. "Ordinarily you'd be right, but these circumstances are far from ordinary. My team and I are operating out of the Rock of Ages, which has some interesting effects on our timebender's power, but I didn't come here to give you a lesson in transtemporal mechanics." While the elder spoke, the junior Jay tottered about the chamber they stood in, looking for something with which to cover his nudity. Most of the containers he opened held various implements of torture, though he did finally come across a battered metal crate with his confiscated gear in it.

  As Jay the younger dressed himself and went through the process of checking to ensure all his various gadgets still functioned properly, his future counterpart regaled him with his reasons for traveling through time. "I know your attention span ain't the greatest, so long story short, shit got pretty fucked up on Earth, followed by shit getting really fucked up all across the Metaverse." Well that was hardly surprising; there was also some crisis or other to deal with, but it wasn't as though Earth was without its champions. Jay said as much to Omega, whose expression darkened. "Oh, is that so? Then please tell me why I had to come all the way back to Twenty Eighteen to warn your dumb ass, when I could have grabbed any of these innumerable champions you speak of? Newsflash: There ain't any more heroes. The Empress made damn sure of that." Mention of the Empress brought Jay up short as he was holstering his Virfneb Caster Mark Virm, and he looked at himself with great consternation.

  "The Empress? Like, Tasha's sister, Empress of the Darrikaan Stellar Empire?" Cold hearted and vindictive, Her Most glorious Imperial Majesty, Nymtyllyns'ash'Andwalu had utterly decimated the rebellion against her tyrannical rule more than a year ago, by Earth standards. A rebellion that had been led by the Empress' twin sister Tasha, and aided by Omega's efforts. They had sorely misjudged the extent of Sasha's mad lust for power, though, and it had cost the Darrikaan people everything when the Empress committed genocide against her own subjects; carpet bombing the civilian refugees hiding on the twin moons of Aja Darrik with a biochemical weapon. And Jay had earned her personal enmity, for no better reason than because Tasha loved him. If the Empress ever managed to find Earth and bring the full might of the Imperial War Fleet to bear, she would gladly wipe out the human race, and there was very little the governments of Earth could do about it.

  The elder Omega shook his head sadly, and his voice softened. "I wish it were something that small, but it is, in fact, much much worse..." Two pair of electric blue eyes locked on to each other, one set bloodshot and slightly puffy, the other haggard and pained. "I'm talking about the Temporal Empress, self-styled liege lady of the Timestream. During her rise to power, she was responsible for eliminating some of the strongest warriors on Earth, starting with the Guardians. The only reason I survived, is because I was out here while it was happening, though it took me far too long to learn that. I had no idea what was going on, and by the time I made my way back to Earth, it was too late to do anything." Jay was familiar with the note of bitterness in Omega's voice; it spoke of blaming himself for lives lost. Now wasn't the time for commiseration, though, so the younger man held his tongue as the elder continued.

  "That was about thirty years ago for me, and I've spent that time trying to figure out where and when things initially went wrong. Now I finally have the answer, which is where you come in." The junior Jay unholstered the Caster at his side, made his way over to the force field which served as the cell's outer wall, then looked back at the older him in puzzlement. "Wait, if you know when and where this goes down, why do you need me? Why don't you and your team just pop on back to whenever, and stop it yourselves?" The elder Omega was shaking his head before his younger counterpart finished the question. "I need you because you're not a threat to the Empress yet; you think I haven't already tried? I have. At least a dozen times, and she's always waiting for me the moment the chronorift opens. Temporal Empress, remember? She's able to watch over her own timeline, so I can't even strike before she becomes this dangerous."

  The younger of the two quirked an eyebrow, the only outward sign of his worry, then shook his head and took aim with his weapon; the barrel pointed at a specific section of the interior wall, directly opposite the control panel for the energy field. "Look man, I appreciate you springin' me, and I totally intend to help, but I gotta get my crew outta here first. Don't suppose you could lend a hand with that?" The elder Omega gave a quick shake of his head, and gestured back toward the portal behind him. "No can do; keeping this sucker open is taking up a shit ton of my team's energy; I can't stick around much longer. If the Empress attacks while we're this vulnerable... well, I probably don't need to go into detail." The junior Jay accepted this with a sour twist of his mouth, then turned his attention back to the wall and tightened his grip on the Caster. "Probably not. All right, well, thanks again, good luck on your end, and at least say 'hi' to Bonnie for me."

  Though the room was already unnaturally still and quiet, the silence seemed to deepen, causing Jay to glance over at his older self again. The pain and anger he saw etched on those weathered features spoke of a great loss, and Jay felt his heart sink; certain that Bonnie Blue numbered among those slaughtered by this Temporal Empress. "No, don't tell me she's--" The elder Omega looked away then, and the young man trailed off. A moment later Omega looked back at Jay, his expression full of sorrow and bitterness. "Dead?" Omega asked softly, then shook his head, "No, she's not dead, though she probably wishes she was. I think that would be preferable, to be honest. No, it's a hell of a lot worse; Bonnie isn't dead, she's host to the Dark Timekeeper. Bonnie is the Temporal Empress." After dropping that bomb, the elder Omega turned, and trudged wearily toward the chronorift.~